DREAM FRAGMENTS
FULL LENGTH, TWO ACT DRAMA
RELATIONS BETWEEN INDIGENOUS AND NON-INDIGENOUS CITIZENS.
CAST PETER – 17 YR OLD, INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIAN
DARREN – 17 YR OLD, ANGLO-AUSTRALIAN
LANA – 19 YR OLD, INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIAN
HELEN – 17 YR OLD, GREEK/ANGLO AUSTRALIAN
SYNOPSIS
Darren and Peter are the stars of the school football team, and have been like brothers since primary school. They have fought together, played together, chased girls together and Peter’s Aboriginality has no significance, at least not in their friendship.
A new girl, Lana has come to the school as a mature age student. Beautiful, strong, and very much aware, and proud of her Aboriginality, Lana seems to present Peter with some sort of challenge. It is he who persuades a fairly willing Helen to set up a double date.
At the beach, part of the old Tjilbruke Dreaming Track of the Kaurna People, each member of the group will face deep and disturbing truths about themself.
In a shocking climax it is the audience as much as the characters on stage which will confront the problems and lack of understanding that still bedevil reconciliation and racial harmony in so many communities throughout the world.
GAMES
FULL LENGTH, TWO ACT DRAMA
FORGIVENESS, SOCIAL CHANGE, RACIAL TOLERANCE
CAST RONNIE HOFFMAN, 51, CRIPPLED
STEVE BREDLETZ, 47, TAXI DRIVER
MAI PHUONG, THIRTIES, ASIAN PROSTITUTE
A RUBBER SEX SHOP DOLL CALLED LULU, NO LINES.
SYNOPSIS
Ronnie needs to be driven home from one of the few pubs he has not been banned from. Steve accepts the call although he knows what trouble crippled customers can be. For reasons of his own Steve is desperate to make some big money tonight.
At the house he drags Ronnie away from an ugly verbal confrontation with Asian neighbours. He wants his money, and he wants to be quit of Ronnie and his vile living quarters as quickly as possible. But things are not going to work out quite so easily.
Using a whole range of tricks and devices, Ronnie seems determined to hang on to the driver’s company. The house is haunted with the past and the sense of death. The two men drink, fight, play cards, dance with Lulu and engage in a duel of truth, jokes, and lies.
Finally Ronnie forces Steve to bring him home a ‘tart’, to prove he is still the man he was. With gleeful vengeance Steve brings the xenophobic vet, Mai Phuong, a Vietnamese prostitute, or is she?
Despite her role in life, Mai proves that she is stronger and more in charge of her fate than either of the two men. In a powerful climax, it is Mai who forces both Steve and Ronnie to face up to their demons and weaknesses.
ICE
FULL LENGTH, TWO ACT DRAMA,WITH MUSIC AND FX
A LOVING A MAN WHO SEEMS IN LOVE WITH DEATH AND DANGER
CAST PAQUITA MAWSON
DEATH
DOUGLAS MAWSON
SCOTT
SHACKLETON
FORBES MCKAY
T.W.EDGEWORTH DAVID
MERTZ
NINNIS **POSSIBILITY OF DOUBLING UP
SYNOPSIS
Paquita is engaged to Douglas Mawson, a hero of science and darling of Australian society, while she is the shy younger daughter of a respectable middle class family. She sits writing love letters to him – as he will to her. But they are letters that will not be read for the two long years of the expedition to Antarctica.
Does this beautiful giant of a man still love her? Is
he still alive even? Will the fame for which he
yearns, and the great world beyond
The play is not locked in historical time and space, but examines the issues in a lyrical way; characters like Shackleton and Scott engage with the two principals as they struggle with all their hopes and fears. Death too demands that Paquita face up to the truth of a love which is at once both glorious and dangerous.
SEE YOU IN MY COUNTRY
FULL LENGTH, TWO ACT DRAMA
THE CHALLENGE OF RECONCILIATION, FOR WHITES AND BLACKS
CAST CHARLIE DUVAL – ABORIGINAL ATHLETE
SANDRA FERGUSON – AUSTRALIAN LAWYER
TWO MALE ACTORS IN MASK FOR SEVEN MINOR PARTS
SYNOPSIS
Charlie Duval is a world class javelin thrower and
Charlie though is rather short sighted and the young male lawyer he thought
he was choosing turns out to be a woman, an Australian doing post-graduate
studies in
But Sandie has her own problems. Her father is a descendent of an old established Australian land owning family, and he is in the middle of fighting a land rights claim on his property. Sandie’s social conscience will not allow her to ignore the fact that her father’s land is his by virtue of the effective genocide of the original owners, so she has accepted the post-graduate position rather get involved in the legal battle.
The dead men are father and son; one a young American athletics friend
of Charlie, and the older, the manager of a huge mining enterprise looking
to operate in
Clearly things have gone badly wrong and Sandie battles to save the young man as he faces the prospect of death and the awful fear that he may have betrayed the interests of his own Aboriginal brothers.
WATER
ONE ACT PLAY
RADICAL SOCIAL CHANGE IN 19TH CENT.
CAST ADAM WALTERS, WORKING CLASS MIGRANT
EVELYN FAIRFAX, WIDOW OF AN ENGLISH NOBLEMAN
MARINE SERGEANT DAWES
JOHN HINDMARSH, GOVERNOR OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA
WILLIAM LIGHT, CHIEF SURVEYOR
SYNOPSIS
Set on board HMS Buffalo, and on shore at Holdfast Bay, ‘Water’ opposes the pragmatism and classist atitudes of the privileged sectors of contemporary society, to the democratic ideals underpinning the establishment of this new type of colony.
It is based on an actual incident aboard the migrant transport in which Captain John Hindmarsh again and again cut water rations to the settlers, while maintaining them to his prize cattle. In this scenario, Adam Walters comes at night to take water for the sick child of the upper class woman he is in love with.
Hindmarsh must make an example of him to, ‘maintain praoper standards of discipline and respect’. However, Adam refuses to apologise and acknowledge his superior’s right to hold property above human considerations; he opts to go to trial and risk a flogging, or worse.
His old Napoleonic war comrade, Dawes tries to persuade him that nothing will change and might will always be right, but Adam insists on this dangerous clash of principle versus privilege
HONEST JOHN
ONE ACT PLAY
THE CLASSIC DILEMMA FOR HOLDERS OF POLITICAL POWER
CAST JOHN VERRAN, SOCIALIST PREMIER OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA
JOHN GUNN, YOUNG SOCIALIST M.P.
WILLIAM GOODMAN, MANAGER OF STATE POWER COMPANY
SYNOPSIS
It is December 1910 and the state is ruled by its first all Labour government. Workers’ wages have been fiercely slashed and this has brought about the great drivers’ strike. Nothing moves on the roads and the state is paralysed.
Management and the Opposition are not displeased since this is proof that chaos will reign in a society headed by a government of working class men. The noble Governor is demanding that John Verran, the State’s first Premier of an all Socialist government, condemn and break the strike, or he will call out the troops. And now William Goodman has brought in a group of blackleg drivers to bring coal from the docks to the power station – he has also secretly armed them with pistols.
Young John Gunn arrives in the Premier’s office, horrified that the man he has idolised all his life may be considering action against the union. At the same time Goodman arrives to reveal what it is he has done. Which way will the old miner turned politician go? Will he risk losing power and the chance to bring about change? Or will he risk blood on the streets of Adelaide?
THE ASTRAL TRAVEL AGENT
A COMEDY IN ONE ACT
CAN ASTRAL BEINGS REALLY TAKE OVER HUMAN BODIES?
CAST ANGELA HARRIS, ATTRACTIVE YOUNG WOMAN
GEOFF PALMER, HER BOYFRIEND
KIERON FOSTER, HYPNOTIST, PSYCHOLOGIST, EXPERT ON ASTRAL TRAVEL
SYNOPSIS
Geoff and Angela sit quietly in Kieron’s office. Angela is clearly upset, and there is obviously something seriously wrong with Geoff. Kieron arrives and Angela tries to explain the problem, constantly interrupted by Geoff.
It seems that during a moment of sadly rare sexual bliss Geoff departed for the Astral plane – and returned in the morning as Marilyn Monroe. Angela of course wants her lover back, and Marilyn too is anxious to return since she has a date on the Astral plane. Kieron makes all sorts of suggestions and even goes to the plane himself, but it is no use. And when Geoff/Marilyn goes there he/she comes back as John Wayne. Only Angela can recognise Geoff and persuade him to come back from the delights of the plane. Will she make the risky trip, and will she bring the lost Geoff back with her? Only the Astral travel agent has the answers.
UP THE MIGHTY WALLEYS
A COMEDY IN ONE ACT
AN ACTOR MANAGER MUST SAVE HIS COMPANY, BUT HOW?
CAST LYNDON BAINBRIDGE, MNGR. MALLAWUNTA THEATRE COMPANY
HARRY PENRITH, SECRETARY OF MTC
KARLA DE WITT, LEADING LADY AND NYMPHOMANIAC
TREVOR DAVIES, LEADING MAN AND GAY AS THE FAIRIES
PAULA FIORI, INGENUE, IN LOVE WITH LYNDON, LOVED BY HARRY
BRENDON JARVIS, ACTOR, OVERWEIGHT FOOTBALLER, IN LOVE WITH KARLA
TOSHIMO WAKASAKI, SON OF DIRECTOR WAKASAKI CONSTRUCTION CO.
SYNOPSIS
Lyndon has somehow managed the miraculous survival of the company in the cultural desert of Mallawunta. The balancing act has gone on for several years, but now he is in trouble.
When he retired from teaching and went to Tokyo for a trip he met Toshimo
one saki drenched night and convinced him that the way for a big Japanese
company to gain acceptance in
He got the sponsorship for the ‘Mallawunta Wallabies’ but has used the money to keep his theatre alive since the ‘Wallabies’ don’t actually exist. Now Toshimo is coming to Mallawunta to present a trophy to the company’s team which apparently won the premiership last year.
The meeting is set for the board room of the Mallawunta Sharks, a real football team. Lyndon and his actors must convince Toshimo that they are the committee of the club.
All is going well when Brendon arrives and threatens to blow the gaff…He is also going to blow his brains out since Karla does not love him any more and Lyndon wont let him play Hamlet.
Toshimo now opts to join Brendon in suicide since he is not a good ‘company man’ and his father wont let him marry his cousin, the six foot tall captain of the Japanese women’s basket ball team….Things are getting difficult.
DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS?
A COMEDY IN ONE ACT (EX. P.G.WODEHOUSE)
CAN A DEAD MILLS AND BOON WRITER HAUNT HER HOUSE?
CAST JAMES RODMAN, CRIME WRITER AND NEW OWNER OF COTTAGE
MRS BENNETT, APPLE CHEEKED HOUSEKEEPER
ROSE BRADY, BEAUTIFUL YOUNG THING
DOCTOR BRADY
ANDREW MCKINNON, TOUGH LITERARY AGENT
COLONEL HENRY(COLD STEEL) CARTERET, ENGAGED TO ROSE
SYNOPSIS
Louisa Armitage, highly successful writer of unmitigated slush novels has died and left her cottage to her nephew, James, on condition he live there for a full year before moving or selling.
James is a struggling crime writer and is glad to have free accommodation. He moves in and settles to finish his latest piece of crime and gore.
Suddenly strange things begin to happen to his plot and characters. Crime scenes begin to look beautiful and tranquil instead of grim and menacing; villains start to show nice sides to their character. And worse of all, his tough detective is threatening to fall in love with a broad instead of shooting her. Is Wattle Blossom Villa beginning to have some strange effect on him?
And then a beautiful young girl appears in strange circumstances and has to stay in the cottage. James is terrified he is going to propose to her…he calls for his doctor and then his literary agent to save him, and then the girl’s elderly fiancée turns up…James is saved from the mysterious slush effect of Aunt Louisa and the cottage…but is he?
COUNTRY WOMEN or NICE TEA…FOR AN ITALIAN
This is a full-length play for stage or radio. The cast is four women and five men – doubling up possible and some mask work as another possibility.
Margaret, Debra, Caterina, and Gloria are all married to farmers. They are of varying ages and from completely different, social, and ethnic backgrounds. For some years they have made it a habit to come on regular shopping expeditions to town, and eat in their favourite restaurant.
Difficult times in the country have meant that there has been a long gap since their last foray to the shops. But, despite everything, today they are going to throw caution to the winds, and have a good time, just like they always did…or are they?
Margaret is ready to go to the retail fray, but one by one each of the other three has to pull out because of, ‘important business commitments’. We follow them on affairs that have a vital bearing on their different futures. And Poor Margaret is left alone…till the restaurant owner, Emilio decides to take a hand.
Not one of the four will ever be quite the same, and as for Margaret…well he does make very nice tea…for an Italian.