A Cheery Soul
{{Short description|1963 play by Patrick White}}
{{italic title}}
{{Use Australian English|date=August 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}}
A Cheery Soul is a 1963 play by Australian writer Patrick White{{Cite news|url=http://theconversation.com/the-great-australian-plays-a-cheery-soul-gave-us-a-supreme-theatrical-monster-70532|title=The great Australian plays: A Cheery Soul gave us a supreme theatrical monster|last=Meyrick|first=Julian|work=The Conversation|access-date=2017-04-30|language=en}} set in the fictional Sydney suburb of Sarsaparilla at the end of the 1950s. White described it as being about "the destructive power of good."{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article57645145|title="I stopped being flattered a long time ago": Jim Sharman|date=24 January 1979|newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly|issue=34|location=Australia|volume=46|page=9|via=National Library of Australia|access-date=16 August 2016}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article136980705 |title=Profound experience at 'A Cheery Soul' |newspaper=The Canberra Times |volume=53 |issue=15,852 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=16 February 1979 |access-date=16 August 2016 |page=5 (TV RADIO GUIDE) |via=National Library of Australia}}
Productions
A Cheery Soul premiered at the Union Theatre Repertory Company in Melbourne in November 1963 directed by John Sumner, with Nita Pannell as the 'cheery soul' Miss Docker.{{Citation|last=Armstrong|first=Madeleine|title=Reviews – Theatre – The Powers of Darkness Patrick White’s evil "do-gooder"|journal=The Bulletin|volume=85|issue=4373|pages=39|publication-date=1963-12-07|publisher=John Haynes and J.F. Archibald|issn=0007-4039}}
Other major productions have included:{{Cite web|url=https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/work/433|title=AusStage|website=www.ausstage.edu.au|access-date=2016-08-16}}
- 1979 Sydney Theatre Company directed by Jim Sharman starring Robyn Nevin
- 1992 Royal Queensland Theatre Company (Brisbane) directed by Neil Armfield starring Carole Skinner
- 2000 Company B Belvoir and Sydney Theatre Company directed by Neil Armfield starring Robyn Nevin
- 2018 Sydney Theatre Company directed by Kip Williams starring Sarah Peirse{{Cite web|url=https://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/whats-on/productions/2018/a-cheery-soul|title=Sydney Theatre Company - A Cheery Soul by Patrick White|date=2018|website=Sydney Theatre Company}}
In popular culture
The play's chief character Miss Docker, as portrayed in 2018 by Sarah Peirse, was the subject of a portrait by Jude Rae, entered into the 2019 Archibald Prize. The artist had many sittings with the actor and has said of it: "Miss Docker's moments of isolation on stage also suggested a formal structure [for the painting] based on a famous 17th century portrait by Diego Velásquez of the actor Pablo de Valladolid, a buffoon in the court of King Phillip IV of Spain."{{Cite journal|last=Rae|first=Jude|date=September-October 2019|title=Stage of life|journal=Look Magazine (Art Gallery Society of New South Wales)|pages=59}} The artist also said: "perhaps this painting is something of an anti-portrait, a reminder that we are to some degree actors, projecting various versions of ourselves..."
1966 TV adaptation
It was adapted for British TV in 1966 on the BBC.[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0496495/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_6 1966 TV Version] at IMDb[https://web.archive.org/web/20201028153555/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6ff5d595 A Cheery Soul] at BFI The Daily Mirror called it tedious.{{cite news|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|date=30 April 1966|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/122733850/?terms=%22cheery%2Bsoul%22%2Bhazel|page=11|title=White Play Attacked}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Patrick White}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheery Soul, A}}