Uni research underpins fresh look at vintage drama
Published on 04 April, 2013
CQUniversity senior lecturer Dr Susan Davis has been researching significant Queensland playwright George Landen Dann...
Dann wrote a number of award-winning plays between the 1930s and 1970s, with several of those focusing on the plight of Aboriginal people. He spent the last 20 years of his life living on the Sunshine Coast, initially at Coolum and, in the 70s, in an old house on Lake Weyba Drive.
"I originally became interested in Dann when I heard that he had died in Eumundi," Dr Davis says.
"That initiated a research and investigative process that is still ongoing but is also coming to fruition through two projects."
LINK for Dr Davis' research blog
Playlab press in Brisbane recently launched its 'New Vintage' Collection, a series of digitally-published plays of significant Australian works. This collection includes four works by George Landen Dann and Dr Davis has written the introductions for those publications. LINK HERE and HERE for Dr Davis' introductions for the 'New Vintage' Collection.
"We are also in rehearsals at present for a rehearsed reading of one of George's plays that was based on a character and the landscape of the Sunshine Coast," Dr Davis says.
"The Orange Grove was written while George lived at Coolum and was inspired by a woman he met who lived on the tea-tree flats near the Maroochy River. It was broadcast on ABC radio in the late 1950s and early 1960s and recognised as one of his major works. Its subject matter draws from the great literary themes of love, betrayal and revenge while reflecting on the costs of progress for the little people who become sacrificial pawns in the business of development. The April 13 reading at Noosa Arts will feature an outstanding cast with professional actor/director Kate Foy and some of the cream of Sunshine Coast acting talent."
The Noosa Arts website for April 13 has details on The Orange Grove reading: http://www.noosaartstheatre.org.au/productions/ournextproduction.aspx
