Out of This Nettle

{{Short description|1952 Australian radio play by Max Afford}}

{{Infobox radio show

| name = Out of this Nettle

| image =

| image_size =

| alt =

| caption =

| other_names =

| format = drama

| runtime = 60 mins{{Citation

| title=Saturday, January 26

| journal=ABC weekly

| date=19 January 1952

| location=Sydney

| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1661753805

| access-date=31 January 2024

| via=Trove

}}

| start_time = 8pm

| end_time = 9pm

| runtime_note =

| country = Australia

| language = English

| home_station =

| presenter =

| starring =

| announcer =

| creator =

| writer = Max Afford

| director = Frank Harvey

| producer =

| narrated =

| record_location = Sydney

| remote_location =

| other_location =

| first_aired = 26 January 1952

| last_aired =

}}

Out of This Nettle is a 1952 Australian radio play by Max Afford. It is a drama set in the sugar cane region of Queensland.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article143083892 |title=SATURDAY PLAYBILL "Out of This Nettle" |newspaper=South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus |volume=LII |issue=6 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=21 January 1952 |accessdate=26 August 2023 |page=2 (South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus feature section) |via=National Library of Australia}}

The play was one of Afford's most acclaimed works.Michael J. Tolley, 'Afford, Malcolm (Max) (1906–1954)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/afford-malcolm-max-9315/text16349, published first in hardcopy 1993, accessed online 26 August 2023.

The Australian setting was relatively rare at the time. Afford researched it in on a trip to northern Queensland.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212240650 |title=Play writer was a visitor here |newspaper=The Evening Advocate |location=Queensland, Australia |date=5 February 1952 |accessdate=26 August 2023 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}

The ABC produced the play twice in 1952, in Sydney (on January 26) and Melbourne (on May 26). The Sydney production was directed by Frank Harvey, one of the last radio plays he directed before his retirement. The Melbourne production was directed by John Cairns.{{cite book|page=391|first=Peter|last=Philp|title=Drama in Silent Rooms|publisher=Eureka Media Communications|year=2016}}{{Citation

| title=Radio Plays ABC

| journal=ABC Weekly

|volume=14 |issue=21 |date=24 May 1952

| location=Sydney

| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1663888215

| access-date=26 August 2023

| via=Trove

}}

A critic from The Age, reviewing the January production, said Afford was "one of the few playwrights in Australia who have any idea of what drama ought to be" and the play "had possibilities rather offset by too much dissertation on sugar, farming and the dragging in of taipans and pythons. It was the old Australian habit of insisting on Australia to the detriment of all else."{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article204969270 |title=THE WEEK IN WIRELESS . |newspaper=The Age |issue=30191 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=2 February 1952 |accessdate=26 August 2023 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}}

A critic from the same paper listened to another production of the play in May and liked it more saying "There is undoubtedly much good writing in it and a sense of theatre, which is almost completely lacking in most of our aspiring playwrights."{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article205404348 |title=The Week in Wirelss |newspaper=The Age |issue=30292 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=31 May 1952 |accessdate=26 August 2023 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}}

Leslie Rees said "Terse, vivid dialogue and economical shaping of plot are the play’s main merits."{{cite book|page=107|url=https://archive.org/details/towardsaustralia0000lesl/page/106/mode/2up?q=%22lazy+in+the+sun%22+%22max+afford%22|title= Towards An Australian Drama|first=Leslie |last=Rees|year=1953}}

A copy of the script is at the University of Queensland's Fryer Library.[https://manuscripts.library.uq.edu.au/index.php/h0033 Out of this Nettle] at UQ