Ned Kelly (play)#1959 television version
{{Short description|1942 Australian radio play}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2019}}
{{Infobox radio show
| name = Ned Kelly
| image = 120px
| caption = ABC Weekly 20 June 1942
| format = verse drama
| runtime = 90 mins{{Citation
| title=ABC PROGRAMMES—SUNDAY, JUNE 21
| journal=ABC Weekly
| volume=4| issue=25 (20 June 1942)
| location=Sydney
| publisher=ABC
| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1331671840
| id=nla.obj-1331671840
| access-date=11 March 2024
| via=Trove
}}
| start_time = 7.30pm
| end_time = 9pm
| runtime_note =
| country = Australia
| language = English
| home_station = 2FC
| syndicates =
| starring =
| announcer =
| writer = Douglas Stewart
| director = Lawrence Cecil
| producer =
| executive_producer =
| editor =
| senior_editor =
| narrated =
| record_location =
| remote_location =
| other_location =
| first_aired = {{Start date|1942|06|21}}
| podcast =
}}
Ned Kelly is a 1942 radio play by Douglas Stewart about the outlaw Ned Kelly.
It was based on a stage play which was in turn adapted for television.{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-australian-television-plays-a-tale-of-two-kellys/|title=Forgotten Australian Television Plays: A Tale of Two Kellys|first= Stephen|last= Vagg|date=January 15, 2022}}
Background
Stewart wanted to follow The Fire on the Snow "with a play that would be its reverse —a study of the heroic will perverted. Looking for a character who would thus be a kind of Miltonic Satan, a hero yet thoroughly bad, I thought about doing a celebrated New Zealand murderer, but decided he was too repulsive a figure to put on the stage. Then I thought of Ned Kelly.” He said he wanted his play to be “a study of the fascinating mixture of good and bad in Ned’s character — the boisterous good humor that made him popular, the arrogance that made him hated; the murderous impulses that could lead him to attempt to wreck a train; the amazing courage he showed when his plans went wrong; the laughter of the man and the loneliness of the outlaw; the pride that sustained him, and the pride that led to his destruction.” {{Citation
| title=Play on the Air Ned Kelly-a Hero yet thoroughly Bad
| journal=ABC Weekly
| volume = 4 | issue =25 | date = 20 June 1942
| location=Sydney
| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1331671196
| id=nla.obj-1331671196
| access-date=22 October 2023
| via=Trove
}}
"I have tried to show in the play that Ned Kelly is remembered because he stands for two things wholly and typically Australian — freedom and courage," said Stewart.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article247994526 |title=AUSTRALIA this week |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |volume=III |issue=29 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=31 May 1942 |accessdate=11 March 2024 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}}
The play was originally written for stage then adapted into radio but was broadcast on radio first.{{Citation
| title=Verse Play Is Study of Ned Kelly
| journal=The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal
| volume = 37 | issue =24 | date = June 20, 1942
| location=Sydney
| publisher=Wireless Press
| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-726271728
| id=nla.obj-726271728
| access-date=22 October 2023
| via=Trove
}}
The play came first in the ABC's 1942 Bonus Play Competition (second was Fountains Beyond, third was Wheat Boat.) The ABC's Frank Clelow said the play "had faults in construction,
but many outstanding and memorable qualities" praising "the quality of the verse, its always eloquent language, and its most successful characterisation."{{Citation
| title=Bonus Play Winners
| journal=ABC Weekly
| volume=4| issue=46 (14 November 1942)
| location=Sydney
| publisher=ABC
| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1329629588
| id=nla.obj-1329629588
| access-date=11 March 2024
| via=Trove
}}
The play was published in book form in 1943.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17841224 |title=Kelly in a Poet's Hands |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=32,833 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=20 March 1943 |accessdate=22 October 2023 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}
Productions
The play was first produced in 1942.
Wireless Weekly called it "a worthy successor to the author’s much-discussed Fire on the Snow. The outstanding thing about this play, however, is the dialogue, which may easily set the fashion for a new Australian school of radio drama."{{Citation
| title=Kellys Again
| journal=The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal
| volume=37| issue=25 (June 27, 1942)
| location=Sydney
| publisher=Wireless Press
| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-726291612
| id=nla.obj-726291612
| access-date=11 March 2024
| via=Trove
}}
The Advocate critic "was not, I must confess, thrillfully
moved by" the play feeling "it wanted less speeches and more movement. There was plenty of diction, but not enough
The ABC felt the production was its most outstanding Australian play of 1942.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47357955 |title=ABC PROGRAMMES. |newspaper=The West Australian |volume=58 |issue=17,607 |location=Western Australia |date=12 December 1942 |accessdate=11 March 2024 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}
The play was produced again on ABC radio in 1945,{{Citation
| title=This week's A.B.C. PLAYS on the National programmes
| journal=ABC Weekly
| volume = 7 | issue =22 | date = 2 June 1945
| location=Sydney
| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1327011260
| id=nla.obj-1327011260
| access-date=22 October 2023
| via=Trove
}} 1947 (called "the finest Australian radio play of the year"{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article234632357 |title="Ned Kelly" -- The Radio Play Of The Year |newspaper=Smith's Weekly |volume=XXIX |issue=30 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=20 September 1947 |accessdate=22 October 2023 |page=20 |via=National Library of Australia}}) , 1951{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article204960922 |title=Kelly Story from LO |newspaper=The Age |issue=29,880 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=2 February 1951 |accessdate=22 October 2023 |page=1 (THE AGE RADIO SUPPLEMENT) |via=National Library of Australia}} and 1959.
Syd Conbere and Wynn Roberts had performed the play on radio in March 1959.{{cite magazine|magazine=ABC Weekly|title=A.B.C. radio plays for the week |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1537193008|page=12|date=March 11, 1959}}{{cite magazine|magazine=ABC Weekly|page=13|title=No title identifier|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1537193176|date=11 March 1959}}
Cast of 1942 production
- Lloyd Berrell as Ned Kelly
- John Nugent Hayward as Joe Byrne
- Brenda Dunrich as barmaid
- Hope Suttor as Ma Jones
Stage play
{{Infobox play
| name = Ned Kelly
| orig_title =
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| writer = Douglas Stewart
| based_on = {{based on|radio play Ned Kelly|Douglas Stewart}}
| director =
| music =
| lyrics =
| choreography =
| chorus =
| characters =
| mute =
| setting =
| premiere = {{Start date|1942|10|14}}
| place = Sydney University Drama Society
| orig_lang = English
| series =
| subject = Ned Kelly
| genre = verse drama
| web =
}}
It was originally written for stage then adapted into radio but was broadcast on radio first.{{Citation
| author1=Australasian Radio Relay League.
| title=VERSE PLAY IS STUDY OF NED KELLY
| journal=The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal
| volume = 37 | issue =24 | date = June 20, 1942
| location=Sydney
| publisher=Wireless Press
| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-726271728
| id=nla.obj-726271728
| access-date=22 October 2023
| via=Trove
}}
=Productions=
The stage play was first presented by the Sydney University Dramatic Society, 14 October 1942. It was performed in Melbourne in 1944 with costumes devised by Norman Lindsay.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article206011977 |title=AMUSEMENTS |newspaper=The Age |issue=27,909 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=2 October 1944 |accessdate=22 October 2023 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}} One review called it "an event of first importance in the history of the Australian drama."{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article172215888 |title=Douglas Stewart's "Ned Kelly" |newspaper=The Advocate |volume=LXXVII |issue=4753 |location=Melbourne|date=4 October 1944 |access-date=22 May 2016 |page=20 |via=National Library of Australia}}
There was an amateur production in Sydney in 1947.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18011983 |title=Theatre's Brave Presentation Of "Ned Kelly" |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=34,085 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=21 March 1947 |accessdate=22 October 2023 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}}
It was professionally produced by the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1956 with Leo McKern.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43459872 |title=Home to play a wild colonial boy |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly |volume=24 |issue=[?] |date=19 September 1956 |access-date=22 May 2016 |page=26 |via=National Library of Australia}} This production was notably unsuccessful financially and critically.
The play was published in book form in 1943.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17841224 |title=KELLY IN A POET'S HANDS |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=32,833 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=20 March 1943 |accessdate=22 October 2023 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}
1959 television version
The play was adapted for a 90-minute television film in 1959, starring Kenneth Goodlet and directed by William Sterling.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{AustLit|C398853|i=yes}}
- {{AusStage|work/1150|Australian performances of the play}}
- [https://www.thetrust.org.au/pdf/trust-activities/TA_ned-kelly.pdf Program from Elizabethan Theatre Trust production]
{{Ned Kelly}}
Category:1942 Australian radio dramas
Category:1945 Australian radio dramas
Category:1947 Australian radio dramas
Category:1951 Australian radio dramas
Category:1959 Australian radio dramas
Category:Radio programs adapted into plays
Category:Cultural depictions of Ned Kelly
Category:Plays by Douglas Stewart
Category:Australian verse dramas
Category:Australian plays presented by the Elizabethan Theatre Trust
Category:Australian plays adapted for radio
Category:Australian plays adapted for television
Category:Australian radio dramas based on actual events
Category:Australian radio dramas about bushrangers
Category:Australian radio dramas that have been published
Category:Australian radio dramas set in colonial Australia
Category:Australian radio dramas set in Victoria
Category:British radio dramas set in Australia
Category:1940s Australian plays