By JOHN VAN KLAVAREN
IT WAS the play that was initially rejected because it might cause offence, and when it was finally performed, attracted a bomb scare and needed police protection at the stage door.
But Alan Seymour’s The One Day of the Year is now recognised as an Australian classic, still as relevant today as it was in the 1960s.
Perhaps even more so considering the play will cast its critical eye over the meaning of Australia’s most symbolic day, Anzac Day, during the centenary of the Gallipoli landing.
Director Denis Moore said it was a privilege to be involved with the production.
“The One Day of the Year stands with Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll as a landmark work of the late 1950s,” he said.
“Seymour’s play had the courage to cast a searching eye over one of the nation’s sacred symbolic days and to examine, with honesty tempered by compassion, the rifts that open up between family members, generations and classes as a result of this veneration.
“To revive this great play in the context of the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing is entirely appropriate and will, I’m sure, secure strong houses for the production and induce in audiences a mood of thoughtful celebration.”
More said the classic status added its own complexity to production of the play.
“To my mind the first requirement is respect; respect for the characters drawn by the author and the historical integrity of the period presented in the work.
“The great value of presenting past works is the challenge they make to present values and ways of living.
“This approach has to be balanced with a playing style that is both vital and immediate. Set, costumes and lighting should combine with the immediacy of the actor’s approach as a piece of theatre for the here and now while retaining its historical integrity.”
The Hit Productions presentation of The One Day of the Year kicks off a national tour at Drysdale’s The Potato Shed tonight.
Tickets for the three Drysdale shows – one tonight and two on Saturday – are available by phoning 5251 1998 or visiting a City of Greater Geelong customer service centre.
