Curly on the Rack

After World War Two, two brothers, the tough Max and the gentler Harry, live in Rabaul with their sister Pet, salvaging war time equipment. Their truck driver, Curly, waits for his opportunity to recover £10,000 he planted on a nearby island during the Japanese invasion along with a fellow soldier called Scobie.

Scobie arrives, having lost both his legs during the war, demanding his half of the money. Smith, a philosophical drunk, comments on the action.

• Stewart Ginn as Scobie
• John Gray as Smith
• Coralie Neville as Pet Finton
• Max Osbiston as Harry
• Grant Taylor as Max Finton
• Ken Wayne as Harry Finton
• Owen Weingott as Tim, a ship's captain

File:Curly_on_the_Rack_2.png

Reviewing the original production, The Bulletin said "the dramatic cliches and tortuous contrivings that go with resolving the situations are rather less thanbearable, and the scene wherein Scobie recovers his manhood and Max reveals his yellow streak must be one of the most preposterous bits of hoo-ha served to an audience for many a day."{{cite magazine|magazine=The Bulletin|page=24|date=10 September 1958|title= Sundry shows talkies theatre music art |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-702819977 }}

The Sydney Morning Herald said the play "ran a wayward course through melodramatic shallows" and "had an entertaining enough adventure yarn to tell, but Mr Pullan seemed unable to develop the issues of his intriguing first act in a rich way through the stationary second, and then abandoned adventure to turn his third act into a much too rapid_, much too tritely tremulous, much too improbable study of a wrecked man's redemption into full and confident manhood." The paper's reviewer added that the "dialogue had the surface fluency to be expected of an experienced hand in day-to-dsy radio writing, but the play...had something of radio's way of forcing over-heated dramatics into situations that could seem more plausible if allowed to generate more stealthily."{{cite news|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|date=4 September 1958|title=Rabaul Setting for New Play|page=5}}

The Age said the play was "undistinguished" with "some of the most predictable action ever seen on stage".{{Cite news|newspaper=The Age|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19580904&id=SCUQAAAAIBAJ&pg=4121,438317&|first=Bruce|last=Grant|date=4 September 1958|page=2|title=New Australian Play in Sydney Undistinguished}} The same critic later elaborated that the problem was not that the play fails to be distinguished but that "it fails to be an ordinary play."{{cite news|first=Bruce|last=Grant|newspaper=The Age|date=13 September 1958|page= 19|title=Curly on the Rack: Assessing Our Latest Australian Play}}

Leslie Rees later called it "sloppily written, novelettish and second-rate. It played to empty houses and quickly lost over £5000 for the Trust. Such a failure illustrated how easily managements that are supposed to be highly skilled in evaluating plays can make woeful mistakes."{{cite book|first=Leslie|last=Rees|page=291|url=https://archive.org/details/australiandrama10000rees/page/291/mode/1up?q=%22curly+on+the+rack%22|publisher=Angus and Robertson| title=Australian drama, 1970-1985 : a historical and critical survey|year=1987}}

According to the Trust Annual Report, the production lost the Trust £5,621.{{cite web|url=https://www.thetrust.org.au/pdf/annual-reports/AR_104-1959.pdf|title=Elizabethan Theatre Trust 1959 Annual Report|website=Elizabethan Theatre Trust|page=10}}

The play was adapted for Australian radio in 1960.{{cite news|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|date=October 27, 1960|page=20|title=Radio Programs}} Pullan adapted the play himself and the roles were played by John Ewart (Curly), Stewart Ginn (Scobie) and John Gray (Smith).{{cite news|newspaper=The Age TV Supplement|date=20 October 1960|page=2|title=Radio presents Curly on the Rack}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/90361 details of premiere production] at AusStage
• [http://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/7820881 Curly on the Rack] at AustLit
• [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19580904&id=SCUQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6pQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4121,438317&hl=en Review of initial production]
• [https://www.thetrust.org.au/pdf/trust-activities/TA_curly-on-the-rack.pdf Program of Original Production] at Elizabethan Theatre Trust

Category:1950s Australian plays

Category:1958 plays

Category:1960s Australian radio dramas

Category:Australian plays presented by the Elizabethan Theatre Trust

Category:Australian plays adapted for radio

Category:Australian radio dramas set in New Guinea