Written by Barbara Vernon Date premiered 1957 First performance 1957 Setting Bondi Beach | Characters 3 male
3 female Genre comedy
social realist Playwright Barbara Vernon Original language English language | |
The Multi-Coloured Umbrella is an Australian play written by Barbara Vernon. It was the first Australian play to be adapted for Australian TV.
Contents
Plot
The play is set at a house in Bondi Beach belonging to the Donnellys, an upwardly mobile family who are bookmakers at Randwick Racecourse. The younger son, Joe, has troubles with his bride, Kate, a woman from a "good" family. Joe's brother Ben is in love with Kate. This leads to a fight between Joe and Ben.
Theatre Background
The play won second place in a 1957 contest for new plays, coming second to The Shifting Heart.
The play was a sequel to an earlier play by Vernon, The Passionate Pianist. The role of Ben was specifically written for the actor Con Fardouly.
It was performed by amateur groups in the towns of Inverell, in the 2NZ drama club, which Vernon co-founded. It then had a run at the Little Theatre in Melbourne before being given a professional production at the Theatre Royal in Sydney in November 1957. This transferred to the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne the following month. The play had a different ending for its Sydney and Melbourne run.
1958 TV Adaptation
An adaption of the play was produced for Australian television in 1958. It was broadcast on the first night the ABC aired from their new studios at Gore Hill.
Cast
Production
The play was broadcast live on 29 January 1958 on ABC's Sydney station from the Sydney studios. The bulk of the play was done live with some prerecorded scenes shot on location at Bondi Beach.
The play was kinescoped for Melbourne broadcast in February 1958. However, the planned Melbourne broadcast did not happen, as the kinescope recording ("telerecording") that was made of the broadcast was said to be "poor quality". The play was instead broadcast on Melbourne radio.
Reception
The Australian Woman's Weekly called it "an excellent production".
Political Controversy
The play was denounced by MLA W.R. Lawrence who said it "showed hysterical scenes, blasphemy of a low type and an immoral level of entertainment." The Sydney Morning Herald wrote an editorial calling Lawrence "an unmitigated bore" and Version "a serious playwright". Other church leaders and critics also complained about the play.
George F Kerr, who did the adaptation, defended the controversial play in a letter to the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, claiming that "It is perfectly possible for a play to be good and yet give offence to some... The writer of a good play is likely to have broken new ground, either in thought or technique, to have given the audience a fresh vision on a scene as seemingly familiar as a Bondi family group. But many people could do without this fresh vision; they resent being told that whereas they thought the world was flat, it is in fact round." He argued that the Donnellys of the play "are not the cosy Mr and Mrs Everybody of Bondi that many viewers may have expected to see on their screens see and, in all honesty, be bored by. The Donnellys are closer to the truth; like all of us from time to time, they are people in trouble.... Certainly this is not a cosy picture of the neighbours. But which is better? To lie about .them or, knowing the truth about their trouble, to be glad for their sake that they emerged from it?"
Radio Adaptation
A version was also produced for Australian radio during 1958. There were versions in 1962 and 1969.