The Flying Swan (radio play)

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Wireless Weekly 5 April 1939 The Flying Swan.png
Wireless Weekly 5 April 1939

The Flying Swan is a 1939 Australian radio play by Catherine Shepherd. It told the story of Hans Christian Andersen. [1] The play was one of Shepherd's major works. [2]

Contents

The play was her fourth for the ABC. [3]

The play was popular and was produced again in 1941, 1943, 1945 and 1949. [4]

The play was produced in Canada. Its success prompted Shepherd to write a biographical play about John Bunyan, The Valiant Tinker . [5] [6]

According to Leslie Rees, with this play, "Shepherd took the problem of what shall a man write about, how shall he fix on his worthy and legitimate material. Hans Andersen, after many struggles, almost miraculously finds his true mission in writing fairy-stories based on his own poetically infused early experience." [7]

Premise

"Miss Shepherd pictures endearingly the strange anti-thesis between Andersen’s Simple Simon physical loutishness and his clear poetic vision and utter simplicity of spirit. The play is not so much a biography as a study of a dreamer's search for his essential self. In Copenhagen the lad who wanted so badly to write and sing was called a gnome, was ridiculed and insulted; but eventually he came into his own. His fairy stories were to bring the hobbledehoy of Odense to the notice of the famous Jenny Lind, and it is Jenny Lind who tells him in the play: “Go on, beautiful lonely swan, towards your destiny.” So, ultimately, Hans Andersen has his childish dream fulfilled, and returns in all honor, and to the pealing of bells, to his home town." [8]

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References

  1. ↑ "Drama From Shakespeare To G. B. Shaw". Sunday Mail . No. 466. Queensland, Australia. 26 March 1939. p. 13. Retrieved 21 February 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  2. ↑ "PLAYS TO BE PRODUCED NEXT MONTH". The Sydney Morning Herald . No. 31, 607. New South Wales, Australia. 20 April 1939. p. 20. Retrieved 21 February 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  3. ↑ ""THE FLYING SWAN."". Macleay Argus . No. 8693. New South Wales, Australia. 4 April 1939. p. 8. Retrieved 21 February 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  4. ↑ "BROADCASTING". The Argus (Melbourne) . No. 30, 341. Victoria, Australia. 24 November 1943. p. 10. Retrieved 21 February 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  5. ↑ "HOBART TO SEE NEW PLAY". The Mercury. Vol. CLXX, no. 25, 188. Tasmania, Australia. 12 September 1951. p. 10. Retrieved 21 February 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  6. ↑ "Plays of the Air— Last Competition Plays", ABC weekly, Sydney: ABC, 17 August 1940, nla.obj-1314296976, retrieved 21 February 2024– via Trove
  7. ↑ Australian drama, 1970-1985 : a historical and critical survey. 1987. p. 190.
  8. ↑ Australasian Radio Relay League. (April 5, 1939), "SUNDAY ...... APRIL 9", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal, Sydney: Wireless Press, retrieved 21 February 2024– via Trove
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