Private Yuk Objects

Last updated
Private Yuk Objects
Written by Alan Hopgood
Directed byJohn Sumner
Date premiered6 September 1966
Place premieredRussell Street Theatre, Melbourne
Original languageEnglish
SubjectVietnam War
Genrecomedy

Private Yuk Objects is a 1966 Australian play about the Vietnam War. It is allegedly the first play in the world on that topic. [1] [2]

Contents

"I did not choose the subject for its sensational value," said Hopgood who added the play "does not take political sides. I don't think that's the job of the playwright. My intention is to record how anger and other government reactions can be manipulated and by government action, softened and made to lose their force." [3]

It was the first play to be commissioned by the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust. [4] Hopgood wrote it in March 1965, being inspired by newspaper accounts of two American soldiers who had been held hostage by the Viet Cong for two years and become peace advocates. Then when Australia became involved in the war he started writing from the Australian point of view. Hopgood worked on the play over the next five months. "The Vietnam War is the first war Australia has been involved with which doesn't have clearcut issues. The issues are muddy. I'm trying to examine the Australian character under stress." [5]

"I try to tap into a current passion," said Hopgood. "Vietnam is hot topical stuff. From a humanitarian view, this is one of the muddiest issues in which we have ever been involved as a nation." [6]

Premise

An Australian family is split by the Vietnam War. The father feels Australia should be in Vietnam. The youngest son has been called up and is unsure why Australia is fighting. The older son is a volunteer Australian officer who has been captured fighting and is in a Vietnamese POW camp, being interrogated by a Vietname officer who has had tertiary education in Sydney. There is also a mother and younger sister.

Private Yuk writes letters to his father.

Reception

Leslie Rees wrote "Theatrically its humorous or piquant approaches had unpredictable gusto; and often it was thrusting in its arguments while not adding to the stockpile on Vietnam, pro and con. I did not think that Alan Hopgood had any serious convictions about Vietnam, other than the conviction that the subject should be discussed. The emotional scenes failed. The city family were wooden stock types and the Dad and Dave intruders mere cartoons." [7]

The Sydney Morning Herald wrote the "characters are comic strip stereotypes" where "one character after another makes very long speeches." [8]

The play drew poor houses in Sydney and Melbourne. [9] The production lost the trust $13,302. [10]

References

  1. ↑ Alan Hopgood biography Archived 2012-08-24 at the Wayback Machine accessed 11 March 2013
  2. ↑ "Yuk – It's Hot Topical Stuff", Sydney Morning Herald, 7 October 2013, accessed 11 March 2013
  3. ↑ Radic, Len (30 July 1966). "Plays looking to Asia". The Age. p. 66.
  4. ↑ "New play going to Sydney". The Age. 22 September 1966. p. 6.
  5. ↑ "Playwright involved in nasty muddy war". The Sydney Morning Herald. 16 October 1966. p. 111.
  6. ↑ "Yuk it's hot topical stuff". The Sydney Morning Herald. 7 October 1966. p. 6.
  7. ↑ Rees, Leslie (1987). Australian drama, 1970-1985 : a historical and critical survey. p. 372.
  8. ↑ Kippax, HG (10 October 1966). "H.G. Kippax expects...". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 10.
  9. ↑ "The Elizabethean Theatre Trust expects". The Sydney Morning Herald. 8 October 1966. p. 13.
  10. ↑ "Trust's loss still good theatre". The Age. 27 June 1967. p. 6.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.