6.6 /10 1 Votes
Written by Alan Seymour Place premiered Adelaide First performance 20 July 1960 | 3.3/5 Goodreads Date premiered 20 July 1960 Original language English Playwright Alan Seymour | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Similar Summer of the Seventee, The Shifting Heart, Blackrock, The Boy from Oz, Così | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The one day of the year by alan seymour
The One Day of the Year is an Australian play by Alan Seymour originally written in 1958 about Anzac Day.
Contents
Peter hardy as alf cook from the one day of the year
Plot
A university student, Hughie Cook, helps his girlfriend Jan write an article criticising Anzac Day, which upsets his ex-serviceman father, Alf.
Characters
Alf Cook, Dot Cook, Hughie Cook, Wacka Dawson Jan Castle
Origins
The play was inspired by an article in the University of Sydney newspaper Honi Soit criticising Anzac Day and Seymour's own observations of how ex-servicemen behaved on that day. The character of Alf was based on Seymour's brother in law.
Productions
The play was rejected by the Adelaide Festival of Arts Board of Governors in 1960, but made its debut on 20 July 1960 as an amateur production by the Adelaide Theatre Group. The first professional season was in April 1961 at the Palace Theatre in Sydney. It proved controversial and Seymour received death threats however it was popular and there have been productions ever since.
1962 Australian TV Version
The play was adapted for Australian TV in June 1962. It was directed by Rod Kinnear and adapted by John Sumner.
Cast
Production
The production was produced by GTV-9 in Melbourne. It was the first of three plays of The General Motors Hour that year. The cast were all members of the Melbourne Union Theatre Repertory Company, which originally presented the play in Melbourne and toured three states.
Reception
The TV critic for the Sydney Morning Herald said the shortened adaptation "suffered much less than might have been expected in its transfer" to television, saying it "sometimes tended to focus more sharply the growing and bitter awareness of the increasing estrangement between an ill-educated, soured lift-driver and his university student son. On' the other hand, some scenes of richly meaningful theatrical impact missed badly."
The TV movie won Best Drama and Best Actor (for Syd Conabere) at the Logie Awards of 1963.
1962 British TV Version
The play was adapted for British TV in 1962 and produced by James Ormerod.
Cast
Film adaptation
Film rights were bought by Lou Edelmen Productions in 1970 but no film resulted.