Your Obedient Servant

Last updated
Your Obedient Servant
Written by Sumner Locke Elliott
Directed by Doris Fitton
Date premiered4 December 1943 [1]
Place premieredIndependent Theatre, Sydney
Original languageEnglish
Genredrama

Your Obedient Servant is a play by Sumner Locke Elliott. It was first performed at Sydney's Independent Theatre directed by Doris Fitton. The play was an allegory for the fascist occupation of Europe. [2]

Contents

Coralie Campbell produced a further season of the play at Sydney's Genesian Theatre in 1969. [3]

Elliott called "easily the worst of the five" initial plays he wrote for the Indepdenent, "a meandering attempt to juxtapose an Australian (I had reached the locale at last) family against the climate of world totalitarianism, (the new wife was Nazi Germany, anyone could see that) and it failed on all counts and was dogged by bad luck from start to finish with changes in cast during rehearsals and the unbelievable fact that at the first reading it ran about an hour short and all kinds of unrelated events and scenes were written in to lengthen it.” [4]

The Sydney Morning Herald felt "Despite its weak first act the play deserved its good reception" praising its "sound psychology, good sentiment, and dramatic urgency, though much of the incident is in familiar pattern." [2]

Premise

Clare, the second wife of a man, is offended by the happiness of his household. She bullies the French maid and her autocratic behaviour stifles any regard the children might have for her.

Related Research Articles

<i>Jedda</i> 1955 Australian film

Jedda, released in the UK as Jedda the Uncivilised, is a 1955 Australian film written, produced and directed by Charles Chauvel. His last film, it is notable for being the first to star two Aboriginal actors, Robert Tudawali and Ngarla Kunoth in the leading roles. It was also the first Australian feature film to be shot in colour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ron Randell</span> Australian actor (1918–2005)

Ronald Egan Randell was an Australian actor. After beginning his acting career on the stage in 1937, he played Charles Kingsford Smith in the film Smithy (1946). He also had roles in Bulldog Drummond at Bay (1947), Kiss Me Kate (1953), I Am a Camera (1955), Most Dangerous Man Alive (1961) and King of Kings (1961).

Ronald Grant Taylor was an English-Australian actor best known as the abrasive General Henderson in the Gerry Anderson science fiction series UFO and for his lead role in Forty Thousand Horsemen (1940).

Sumner Locke Elliott was an Australian novelist and playwright.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doris Fitton</span> Actress and stage director (1897–1985)

Dame Doratea Alice Lucy Walkden Fitton, was an Australian pioneering theatre entrepreneur, actress of stage and film and theatrical director and producer who established with 19 other actors The Independent Theatre Ltd. in North Sydney, New South Wales in 1930, which operated for forty-seven years.

<i>The Rats of Tobruk</i> (film) 1944 Australian film

The Rats of Tobruk is a 1944 Australian film directed by Charles Chauvel. An abridged version was released in the United States in 1951 as The Fighting Rats of Tobruk. The film follows three drover friends who enlist in the Australian Army together during World War II. Their story is based on the siege of the Libyan city of Tobruk in North Africa by Rommel's Afrika Korps. The partly Australian defenders held the city for 250 days before being relieved by British forces.

Independent Theatre, formerly known as The Independent Theatre Ltd., was an Australian dramatic society founded in 1930 by Dame Doris Fitton in Sydney, Australia. It is also the name given to the building it occupied from 1939, now owned by Wenona School, in North Sydney, cited as Sydney's oldest live theatre venue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Shirley</span> Australian actor

Arthur Shirley was an Australian actor, writer, producer, and director of theatre and film. He experienced some success as a film actor in Hollywood between 1914 and 1920.

Lloyd Berrell was a New Zealand actor who played Reuben "Roo" Webber in the original Sydney production of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. He worked extensively in Australian radio and theatre, appearing in a large portion of the films being shot locally at that time. He also starred in the original stage production of Sumner Locke Elliott's Rusty Bugles as well as numerous productions for the Mercury Theatre.

<i>The Romantic Story of Margaret Catchpole</i> 1911 Australian film

The Romantic Story of Margaret Catchpole, generally referred to as Margaret Catchpole, is a 1911 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford and starring Lottie Lyell. It is based on the true story of Margaret Catchpole, an adventurer and convict.

The Tide of Death is a 1912 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford based on an original story by Longford. This was rare at the time because most Australian silent films were based on plays or novels.

The Little Sheep Run Fast is a 1940 Australian play by Sumner Locke Elliott. Being a drama, it was a change of pace from his first two stage plays which were both comedies.

<i>The Invisible Circus</i> (play) Play by Sumner Locke Elliott

The Invisible Circus is a 1946 Australian stage play by Sumner Locke Elliott set in the world of commercial radio drama, a field that Elliott knew well from many years writing for George Edwards. Elliott is represented in two characters, the idealistic Brad and the more jaded Mark.

Venus Observed is a play in blank verse by the English dramatist and poet Christopher Fry. The play concerns a Duke who decides to remarry for a third time. He gets his son Edgar to pick the bride. The Duke likes Perpetua but Edgar wants her for himself.

<i>Dark Enchantment</i> Play by Max Afford

Dark Enchantment is a 1949 Australian play by Max Afford.

<i>Ned Kelly</i> (musical) 1977 musical

Ned Kelly is an Australian musical with book and lyrics by Reg Livermore and music by Patrick Flynn. It tells the story of Australian bushranger Ned Kelly with an eclectic score combining rock opera, vaudeville and burlesque. The original Australian production played in Adelaide and Sydney in 1977 and 1978.

Ned Kelly is a 1942 radio play by Douglas Stewart about the outlaw Ned Kelly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">May Hollinworth</span> Australian theatrical producer and director

May Hollinworth was an Australian theatre producer and director, former radio actress, and founder of the Metropolitan Theatre in Sydney. The daughter of a theatrical producer, she was introduced to the theatre at a young age. She graduated with a science degree, and worked in the chemistry department of the University of Sydney, before being appointed as director of the Sydney University Dramatic Society, a post she held from 1929 until 1943

Ethel Morrison, nicknamed "Morry" or "Molly" and described as a "large lady with a large voice", was a contralto singer from New Zealand who began her career in Gilbert and Sullivan operas and Edwardian musical comedies in England. She later acted mostly in Australia and was noted for her performances in domineering roles.

Viola Wilson was a Scottish singer, the leading soprano for J. C. Williamson's Gilbert and Sullivan company in Australia during World War II. She married the widowed theatre businessman Frank S. Tait, later Sir Frank.

References

  1. "Advertising". The Sydney Morning Herald . No. 33, 055. New South Wales, Australia. 4 December 1943. p. 2. Retrieved 5 September 2023 via National Library of Australia.
  2. 1 2 "NEW PLAY HAS GOOD RECEPTION". The Sydney Morning Herald . National Library of Australia. 6 December 1943. p. 7. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
  3. "Your Obedient Servant". The Australian Live Performance Database. Retrieved 2021-08-17.
  4. Rees, Leslie (1987). Australian drama, 1970-1985 : a historical and critical survey. p. 183.