''Duke of Edinburgh Assassinated or The Vindication of Henry Parkes'' is a 1971 Australian play written by

Bob Ellis Robert James Ellis (10 May 1942 – 3 April 2016) was an Australian writer, journalist, filmmaker, and political commentator. He was a student at the University of Sydney at the same time as other notable Australians including Clive James, Germa ...

and Dick Hall. It followed Ellis' successful ''

The Legend of King O'Malley ''The Legend of King O'Malley'' is a 1970 Australian musical play by Bob Ellis and Michael Boddy about politician King O'Malley. The original production was held at Jane Street Theatre in Randwick, Sydney, and starred Robyn Nevin and Kate Fitzpa ...

''.

Background

In 1970 Bob Ellis went to a party given by

Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. The longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1967 to 1977, he was notable for being the he ...

's secretary Dick Hall thinking he was going to be asked to write speeches for Whitlam. Instead Hall proposed they collaborate on a musical about the attempted assassination of Prince Alfred in Sydney in 1868. They wrote the play over weekends.

Productions

It premiered at the

Nimrod Theatre The Nimrod Theatre Company, commonly known as The Nimrod, was an Australian theatre company based in Sydney. It was founded by in 1970 by Australian actor John Bell, Richard Wherrett and Ken Horler, and gained a reputation for producing more "g ...

in 1971 directed by Aarne Neame. Reviewing the 1971 production the ''Sydney Morning Herald'' critic felt the second half was better than the first. The reviewer from ''The Bulletin'' said:

Slabs of factual research and transcription covering trials, commissions and interviews (fascinating in content, no doubt, but deadly dull as theatre) are interspersed with stretches of music-hall song-and dance routines in a desperately contrived effort to sugar the pill. But the pill sticks firmly in the throat. The authors are concerned with politics, not Parkes. They have produced a play without characters, a documentary dolled up as a theatrical event and a somewhat confusing documentary at that.

The play was also produced in Melbourne in 1972.Play listing
at

Ausstage AusStage: The Australian Live Performance Database is an online database which records information about live performances in Australia, providing records of productions from the first recorded performance in Australia (1789, by convicts) up unt ...

References

1971 plays Australian plays Australian musicals {{1970s-play-stub