Naked Possum
{{Short description|1956 play by Barbara Vernon}}
{{Infobox play
| name = Naked Possum
| orig_title =
| image =
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| writer = Barbara Vernon
| director = Noel Rubie
| choreography =
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| setting = Malaya
| premiere = {{Start date|1956|09|13}}
| place = Independent Theatre, Sydney
| orig_lang = Australia
| series =
| subject = Malayan Emergency
| genre = drama
| web =
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Naked Possum is a 1956 Australian play by Barbara Vernon. It was her first play performed in Sydney and is one of the few Australian plays to examine the Malayan Emergency. (There was also Strangers in the Land by Mona Brand.)Jane Connors, 'Vernon, Barbara Mary (1916–1978)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/vernon-barbara-mary-11922/text21359, published first in hardcopy 2002, accessed online 29 July 2023.{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/3-forgotten-australian-television-plays/|title=3 Forgotten Australian Television Plays|first= Stephen |last=Vagg|date=August 27, 2022|access-date=August 8, 2024}}
Reception
Leslie Rees described it as "something of a damp squib."{{cite book|first=Leslie|last=Rees|url=https://archive.org/details/australiandrama10000rees/page/288/mode/2up?q=%22naked+possum%22+%22barbara+vernon%22|year=1987|title=Australian drama, 1970-1985 : a historical and critical survey|page=289}}
The Sydney Morning Herald called it "ripe old melodrama" with "stale situations and limping cliches... The first act is merely dull and commonplace... But as soon as the distraught lady... arrives the atmosphere becomes clammy with potentialities."{{cite news|last=A.A.|title=Aust Play at the Independent|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=14 September 1956|page= 7}}
However The Bulletin said "it has a remarkably attractive set.. and a most impressive performance by Owen Weingott, while the plot has sufficient intricacy and suspense to keep one guessing."{{Citation |title=Women’s Letters – Sydney |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-694447958 |journal=The Bulletin |volume=77 |issue=3997 |pages=18 |publication-date=19 September 1956 |year= |access-date=30 July 2023 |series=John Ryan Comic Collection (Specific issues) |location=Sydney, N.S.W. |publisher=John Haynes and J.F. Archibald |issn=0007-4039 |id=nla.obj-694447958 |via=Trove}}
Premise
During the Malayan Emergency, Australian troops looking for Communists arrive at a temple in the jungle. They meet the widow of a murdered planter who tries to seduce the soldiers.
Original cast
- Margaret Roberts as the widow
- Owen Weingott as the captain
- Jerold Wells as the sergeant
- Derek Stanley as the lieutenant
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/13067 Naked Possum] at Ausstage
Category:1950s Australian plays