The Fire on the Snow

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Fire on the Snow
Fire on the Snow.png
Wireless Weekly 7 June 1941
Genreverse drama play
Running time60 mins [1] (7:30 pm – 8:30 pm)
Country of originAustralia
Language(s)English
Home station2FC
SyndicatesABC
StarringFrank Harvey
Written by Douglas Stewart
Directed by Frank Clewlow
Recording studioSydney
Original releaseJune 8, 1941 (1941-06-08)

The Fire on the Snow is a 1941 Australian verse play by Douglas Stewart about the Terra Nova Expedition to Antarctica by Robert Falcon Scott. It premiered on ABC radio on 6 June 1941 to great acclaim and inspired a series of Australian verse dramas on ABC radio. [2] [3]

Contents

The play was performed in Canada, England and New Zealand, and was an assigned text for the Leaving Certificate. It was also adapted into a stage version. [4] [5]

Background

Exrtracts of the play were published in The Bulletin in 1939. [6] Leslie Rees, the ABC's Drama Editor, read it and encouraged Stewart to turn it into a radio play. [7]

Stewart said he wanted to write the play for radio "because I wanted to write a long poem about Scott, and this, short of finding a lunatic talkie director who would make a film with verse, dialogue and commentary, was the only way to do it. This commentator form, enabling the poet to speak directly to his audience and to present heroic or mythological themes that cannot very well be performed on the stage, is likely to have an increasing appeal to poets. Since the commentator is a sort of ‘chorus,’ the form of the play is very close to that of the ancient Greek dramas." [8] He was influened by the plays of Archibald Macleish.

Leslie Rees, the ABC's drama editor, called The Fire on the Snow the "finest-written radio play yet to have come out of Australia, and among the finest-written half-dozen from anywhere." [9]

Original 1941 Production

The original production of the plat was produced by Frank Clewlow and was to have starred Peter Finch as Scott, but he joined the army only four days before broadcast, so Frank Harvey replaced him. Clewlow decided to employ a female actor, Ida Osbourne, as narrator to contrast with the all-male cast. [10] No copy of this original production exists. [11]

The Bulletin said "it is more important as a poem than as a play, though the natural dramatic quality of what it treats of... the powerful statement it makes on a theme of supreme and absolute human heroism, and, as well, the strong reality in the cold awe of its setting, add up to uncommonly impressive radio drama." [12]

The play prompted an enormous amount of correspondence. [13] [14] [15] Leslie Rees responded saying he thought the production was "magnificent. I am convinced that Douglas Stewart’s dramatic chronicle justified in the event every ounce of the preliminary praise I was in the position to give it. A large number of listeners thought the same and have said so, verbally or in letters." [16]

The production was repeated in August 1941. The Fire on the Snow was called "the radio sensation of 1941." [17]

Original 1941 radio cast

Subsequent productions

The Age 7 Nov 1955 The Fire on the Snow radio.png
The Age 7 Nov 1955

The play has been performed on radio several times since including:

Publication

The play was published in 1945. [39]

Stage version

Stewart adapted the play into a stage version that has been performed a number of times. [40] Notable productions include:

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References

  1. ↑ "Sunday June 8", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal, 36 (23), Sydney: Wireless Press, June 7, 1941, retrieved 23 October 2023– via Trove
  2. ↑ Leslie Rees biography at Live Performance Hall of Fame
  3. ↑ ""THE FIRE ON THE SNOW."". The Narracoorte Herald . SA: National Library of Australia. 3 June 1941. p. 4. Retrieved 14 September 2014.
  4. ↑ Rees, Leslie (1953). Towards An Australian Drama. p. 136.
  5. ↑ "Fire on the Snow: A Radio Play". The Age. 27 August 1968. p. 19.
  6. ↑ "The Red Page The Word", The Bulletin, 60 (3122), Sydney, N.S.W: John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 13 Dec 1939, retrieved 23 October 2023– via Trove
  7. ↑ Inglis, Kenneth Stanley (1983). This is the ABC : the Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1932-1983. p. 88.
  8. ↑ "Explorer's Diary Used for Dialogue", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal, 36 (22), Sydney: Wireless Press, May 31, 1941, retrieved 23 October 2023– via Trove
  9. ↑ "Plays of the Air "Australia's Finest Radio Play"", ABC Weekly, 3 (23), Sydney: ABC, 7 June 1941, retrieved 23 October 2023– via Trove
  10. ↑ "They're in the Army, Now", ABC weekly, 3 (24 (14 June 1941)), Sydney: ABC, nla.obj-1313264948, retrieved 15 March 2024– via Trove
  11. ↑ 'Playing the 20th century – episode three: The Fire On The Snow', Radio National, 2 January 2011
  12. ↑ "Sundry Shows", The Bulletin, 62 (3210), Sydney, N.S.W: John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 20 Aug 1941, retrieved 23 October 2023– via Trove
  13. ↑ "The Fire on the Snow", ABC Weekly, 3 (26), Sydney, 28 June 1941, retrieved 23 October 2023– via Trove
  14. ↑ "ABC Plays", ABC Weekly, 3 (34), Sydney, 23 August 1941, retrieved 23 October 2023– via Trove
  15. ↑ "The Beauty of Words", ABC Weekly, 3 (27), Sydney: ABC, 5 July 1941, retrieved 23 October 2023– via Trove
  16. ↑ "Plays of the Air Reply to Critics of New Play", ABC Weekly, 3 (27), Sydney, 5 July 1941, retrieved 23 October 2023– via Trove
  17. ↑ "Symposium of the Week's Main Events on the A.B.C. Network", ABC Weekly, 3 (32), Sydney, 9 August 1941, nla.obj-1322359679, retrieved 23 October 2023– via Trove
  18. ↑ "ABC PROGRAMMES—FRIDAY, SEPT. 25", ABC weekly, 4 (38 (19 September 1942)), Sydney: ABC, nla.obj-1329253768, retrieved 15 March 2024– via Trove
  19. ↑ Inglis p 88
  20. ↑ "A.I.F. GUNNER TO PLAY LEAD IN RADIO PLAY". Daily Mirror. No. 428. New South Wales, Australia. 24 September 1942. p. 8 (Late Final Extra 3). Retrieved 19 March 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  21. ↑ "Coming on the air", ABC weekly, 6 (39 (23 September 1944)), Sydney: ABC, nla.obj-1338793691, retrieved 15 March 2024– via Trove
  22. ↑ "This week's A.B.C. PLAYS ON NATIONAL RELAY", ABC weekly, 8 (6 (23 February 1946)), Sydney: ABC, nla.obj-1333651014, retrieved 15 March 2024– via Trove
  23. ↑ Australian Broadcasting Commission., "v. : ill. ; 29cm.", PLAYS OF THE WEEK, vol. 10, Sydney: ABC, nla.obj-1549884767, retrieved 15 March 2024– via Trove
  24. ↑ "The Week in Wireless". The Age . No. 28932. Victoria, Australia. 17 January 1948. p. 7. Retrieved 15 March 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  25. ↑ "U.S. ENVIES OUR RADIO CHANCES", ABC weekly, 10 (18 (1 May 1948)), Sydney: ABC, nla.obj-1549969190, retrieved 15 March 2024– via Trove
  26. ↑ "FRIDAY, October 20", ABC weekly, 12 (41 (14 October 1950)), Sydney: ABC, nla.obj-1523823801, retrieved 15 March 2024– via Trove
  27. ↑ Richard Lane, The Golden Age of Australian Radio Drama, Melbourne University Press, 1994 p 230
  28. ↑ "Peter Finch In BBC-Produced Australian Play". The Age . No. 29, 963. Victoria, Australia. 11 May 1951. p. 1 (THE AGE RADIO SUPPLEMENT). Retrieved 15 March 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  29. ↑ Fire on the Snow at Genome
  30. ↑ "THE WEEK IN WIRELESS". The Age . No. 30, 566. Victoria, Australia. 18 April 1953. p. 16. Retrieved 15 March 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  31. ↑ "RADIO PLAYS for NEXT WEEK A. B. C.", ABC weekly, 15 (15 (11 April 1953)), Sydney: ABC, nla.obj-1687047044, retrieved 15 March 2024– via Trove
  32. ↑ Australian Broadcasting Commission., "RADIO PLAYS for NEXT WEEK A.B.C.", ABC weekly, 16 (18 (1 May 1954)), Sydney: ABC, nla.obj-1674507135, retrieved 15 March 2024– via Trove
  33. ↑ "RADIO PLAYS for NEXT WEEK A. B. C.", ABC weekly, 17 (33 (20 August 1955)), Sydney: ABC, nla.obj-1539898296, retrieved 15 March 2024– via Trove
  34. ↑ "RADIO PLAYS A. B. C.", ABC weekly, 17 (44 (5 November 1955)), Sydney: ABC, nla.obj-1542223209, retrieved 15 March 2024– via Trove
  35. ↑ "A.B.C. radio plays for the week", ABC weekly, 20 (18 (30 April 1958)), Sydney: ABC, nla.obj-1435875350, retrieved 15 March 2024– via Trove
  36. ↑ "THE WEEK'S PLAYS", ABC weekly, 21 (39 (30 September 1959)), Sydney: ABC, nla.obj-1414236472, retrieved 15 March 2024– via Trove
  37. ↑ "Radio plays". The Age. 18 July 1963. p. 24.
  38. ↑ Hill, Barry (4 May 1989). "Radio". The Age. p. 46.
  39. ↑ "Reviews of New Books". The Advertiser . Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 10 February 1945. p. 4. Retrieved 14 September 2014.
  40. ↑ "It never rains but luckily it pours". Tribune. No. 1539. New South Wales, Australia. 13 December 1967. p. 6. Retrieved 15 March 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  41. ↑ Kippax, HP (11 April 1968). "Endurance and Caustic Comment". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 41.
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