Jack Hibberd
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John Charles Hibberd (born 12 April 1940 in
Warracknabeal Warracknabeal ( ) is a wheatbelt town in the Australian state of Victoria. Situated on the banks of the Yarriambiack Creek, 330 km north-west of Melbourne, it is the business and services centre of the northern Wimmera and southern Mallee d ...
, Victoria) is an Australian
playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
and
physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
.


Biography

Hibberd studied medicine at the
University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...
and resided in Newman College. He worked as a registrar in the Department of Social Medicine at St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, from 1966 to 1967. He worked as a general practitioner until 1984, then practised as a clinical immunologist. He is married to actress Evelyn Krape, with whom he has two children. He also has two children from his first marriage. Hibberd co-founded the
Australian Performing Group The Australian Performing Group (APG) was a Melbourne-based experimental theatre repertory ensemble formed in an official capacity in 1970 from the La Mama theatre group. Created to address a dissatisfaction with Australia's theatrical climate, th ...
(APG) in 1970. He was a member for ten years, and chairman for two. In 1983 he founded the Melbourne Writers Theatre, which is still active today. He served on the Theatre Board of The Australia Council twice, and recently on its Literature Board.


Career

Hibberd has written close to 40 plays, some of them not full length. His first play, ''White With Wire Wheels'', was staged in 1967 at the
University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...
, and is a proto-feminist revenge play, which satirizes male herd behaviour and the men's obsession with cars and alcohol-virility over women. Hibberd's micro-play, ''Three Old Friend''s, opened the legendary La Mama theatre in
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
(29 July 1967). This work was one of a number of very short works in which Hibberd reconnoitred the styles of Beckett,
Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that span ...
and
Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...
. These, plus a couple of longer plays (''Who'' and ''One of Nature's Gentlemen'') made up a season called ''Brain-Rot'' (1968). There followed Hibberd's most popular play: ''
Dimboola Dimboola is a town in the Shire of Hindmarsh in the Wimmera region of western Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 334 kilometres north-west of Melbourne. History Situated on the Wimmera River, Dimboola was previously known as 'Nine Creek ...
'', a wedding breakfast farce with audience participation. His next play, a long monodrama, ''A Stretch of the Imagination'', is regarded by most connoisseurs as his finest work, embodying a radical advance in the character of Australian theatre, embracing and remoulding as it does many of the strong strands in theatrical modernism. ''Stretch'' was the first Australian play to be staged in China (in
Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
) with a famous Chinese actor,
Wei Zongwan Wei Zongwan (; born 24 November 1938) is a Chinese actor. He has been acting since the 1980s and has appeared in over 70 films and television shows. He has won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in '' San Mao Joins t ...
, as Monk. This play has enjoyed productions in the United States, Germany and New Zealand. In 2010 it was performed in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
by Mark Little, a winner of the prestigious
Laurence Olivier Award The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply the Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre in London at an annual ceremony in the capital. The awards were originally known as ...
. Hibberd has completed some stage adaptations of short stories: Gogol's ''
The Overcoat "The Overcoat" (russian: Шине́ль, translit. Shinyél’; sometimes translated as "The Cloak") is a short story by Russian author Nikolai Gogol, published in 1842. The story has had a great influence on Russian literature. Eugène-Mel ...
'' (with music),
De Maupassant Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, as well as a representative of the Naturalist school, who depicted human lives, destin ...
's ''
Odyssey of a Prostitute The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Iliad'', th ...
'', and Tolstoy's '' The Death of Ivan Ilych''. Hibberd's most challenging plays are his monodramas, in which he specializes. Those for women include ''Female Rhapsodies'' (sub-titled 'curtain-raisers'), ''Lavender Bags'' and ''Mothballs''. The first entails a preparation for a wedding (a fantasy performance), the second explores the fine public face of grief and its ugly private underbelly. Apart from ''Stretch'', there is a gargantuan male on monodrama, From Apes to Apps, subtitled ''A History of the Western'' ''World in Ninety Minutes'', which indeed it is. ''Peggy Sue'', a companion to ''White with Wire Wheels'', dramatises the mistreatment and exploitation of three romantic young women during a severe economic depression when they are compelled to work as prostitutes. ''Liquid Amber'' is a companion to ''Dimboola'', and has audience participation at golden wedding celebration. ''A Toast to Melba'' and ''The Les Darcy Show'' embraces the lives of the famous diva
Nellie Melba Dame Nellie Melba (born Helen Porter Mitchell; 19 May 186123 February 1931) was an Australian operatic dramatic coloratura soprano (three octaves). She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and the early 20th century, ...
and the champion boxer
Les Darcy James Leslie Darcy (28 October 189524 May 1917) was an Australian boxer. He was a middleweight, but held the Australian Heavyweight Championship title at the same time. Les Darcy was the 2003 Inductee for the Australian National Boxing Hall ...
. ''Repossession'' concentrates on the conflicts between two poor young women who live in a shack out in the bush and two domineering corporate captains who, stranded, turn up for the night. Hibberd's recent plays are ''Commandments'', in which five of the
ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ ...
are inverted, or perverted, so that the breaking of a commandment becomes ethically justified. And ''Guantanamo Bay'', which is set in that institution and is visited by
President George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
,
Dick Cheney Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He is currently the oldest living former U ...
,
Donald Rumsfeld Donald Henry Rumsfeld (July 9, 1932 – June 29, 2021) was an American politician, government official and businessman who served as Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under president Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under Presi ...
,
Douglas Feith Douglas Jay Feith (born July 16, 1953) served as the under secretary of Defense for Policy for United States president George W. Bush, from July 2001 until August 2005. He is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank. ...
and
Paul Wolfowitz Paul Dundes Wolfowitz (born December 22, 1943) is an American political scientist and diplomat who served as the 10th President of the World Bank, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia, and former dean of Johns Hopkins SA ...
because it is "Open Day at Guantanamo Bay", and, to begin the celebrations, there is a performance of ''The History of'' ''American Violence''...a play within a play. The guests watch some examples of the artistry of contemporary torture. Later they are joined by
Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
and
John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the s ...
, Australia's "Man of Steel".
Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...
appears as an interlude. A waiter called
Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Is ...
causes great distress among the American dignitaries.


Selected works


Plays

*''White With Wire Wheels'' (1967) *''Memoirs of a Carlton Bohemian'' (1967) *''Brainrot'' (1968) – "The Great Gap of Time", "No Time Like the Present", "One of Nature's Gentlemen" *''The Last Days of Epic J. Remorse'' (aka ''Death Rattle'') (1968, revised 1994) *''
Dimboola Dimboola is a town in the Shire of Hindmarsh in the Wimmera region of western Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 334 kilometres north-west of Melbourne. History Situated on the Wimmera River, Dimboola was previously known as 'Nine Creek ...
'' (1968) *''Customs and Excise'' aks ''Proud Flesh'' *''Klag'' (1970) *''Aorta'' (1971) *''Marvellous Melbourne'' (1970) *''
A Stretch of the Imagination ''A Stretch of the Imagination'' is an Australian play by Jack Hibberd. It was one of the most significant new plays of the Australian drama revival of the early 1970s.Leslie Rees, ''Australian Drama in the 1970s'', Angus & Robertson, 1978 p 47-52 ...
'' (1972) *''Women'' *''Captain Midnight, VC'' (1972, revisd 1984) *''The Les Darcy Show'' (1974) *''Peggy Sue'' (1975) *''
A Toast to Melba ''A Toast to Melba'' is a 1976 Australian play by Jack Hibberd. A biography of Dame Nellie Melba, Hibberd described it as: Another 'Popular Play' like ''The Les Darcy Show''. Using the Epic Theatre techniques of Bertolt Brecht (without politics), ...
'' (1975) *''The Overcoat Sin'' (1977) *''Sin'' (1978) *''A Man of Many Parts'' (1979) *''Mothballs'' (1980) *''Liquid Amber'' (1982) *''Glycerine Tears'' (1982) *''Malarky Barks'' (1983) *''The Old School Tie'' (1983) *''Odyssey of a Prostitute'' (1984) *''Slam Dunk'' (1984) *''Lavender Bags'' (1985) *''Female Rhapsodies'' (1986) *''The Prodigal Son'' (1990) *''The Dutiful Daughter'' (1993) *''Legacy'' (1997) *''Repossession'' (1998) *''A History of the Western World in Ninety Minutes'' (1998) *''The Death of Ivan Ilych'' (1999) *''The Crown vs Alice Springs'' (2001) *''An Evening with Elizabeth Bowen and Sean O'Faolin'' (2002) *''The Spanish Dancer'' (2004) *''The Second Coming'' (2007) *''Commandments'' (2009) *''Guantanamo Bay'' (2009)


Published plays and editions

*''Four Popular Plays'' (1970) ''White With Wire Wheels'' and ''Who?'' *''Three Popular Plays'': ''A Toast to Melba'', ''The Les Darcy Show'' and ''One of Nature's Gentlemen'' *''A Stretch of the Imagination'' (1973) *''The Overcoat'' and ''Sin'' (1981) *''Captain Midnight VC'' (1972, 1984) *''Dimboola'' (1974)Penguin Books No ISBN *''Dimboola'' and ''Liquid Amber'' *''Squibs'' (a collection of short plays, 1984) *''Slam Dunk'' (1985) *''Plays of the 70s'' (1998) *''Selected Plays'' (2000) *''Duets'' (''The Old School Tie'' and ''Glycerine Tears'') *''The Prodigal Son'' (2001)


Novels

*''Memoirs of an Old Bastard'' (1989) *''The Life of Riley'' (1990) *''Perdita'' (1992)


Poetry

*''Le vin des amants'' (1977) – after
Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...
*''The Genius of Human Imperfection'' (1988) *''Madrigals for a Misanthrope'' (2005)


Musical theatre

*''The Overcoat'' (1976) – adaptation of
Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...
's novel of that name, music by Martin Friedel *''Sin'',
opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
in 7 deadly acts & entracts (1978) – commissioned by the
Victoria State Opera The Victoria State Opera (VSO), based in Melbourne, Australia, was founded in Melbourne in 1962. The company, founded by Leonard Spira, was a move into grand opera by the then amateur Gilbert and Sullivan-oriented Victorian Light Opera Co. The n ...
, music by Martin Friedel *''Smash hit! or a goggle-moggle for Kugel'' (1980) – a play with music by George Dreyfus *''Odyssey of a Prostitute'' (1984) – a
singspiel A Singspiel (; plural: ; ) is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera. It is characterized by spoken dialogue, which is alternated with ensembles, songs, ballads, and arias which were often strophic, or folk-like ...
adaptation of a
Maupassant Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, as well as a representative of the Naturalist school, who depicted human lives, destin ...
story, music by Martin Friedel


Other

*''The Barracker's Bible'' (1983, with Garrie Hutchinson) – a dictionary of Australian sporting slang *''The Great Allergy Detective Book'' (1995) Over the years Hibberd has also published short stories and essays on theatre.


Screenplays

''Miss Finger'' A nocturnal thriller set in Melbourne. Miss Finger, a forensic scientist turns detective after her two children die of overdoses. With the help of a suave Sydney detective, she weaves her way through Melbourne's unsavoury and ethnically diverse underground, finally finding and nailing the Big Drug Baron, a toad-featured Australian Vietnam Vet, who originally went AWOL into the Golden Triangle. ''Captain Midnight VC'' Midnight is a VC winner from World War Two, but is denied a soldier settlement post-war because of his sooty complexion. He becomes an Aboriginal radical and an agitator for Black Power. He enlists the aid of black Americans and Africans, who infiltrate Australia, bomb Parliament House killing all its members, and seducing paddocks of white women. A deal is finally attained: all white Tasmanians are exiled to the mainland, and those urban and landless indigenes take over Tasmania, which they name Trugininiland. ''Uncle Sam'' Uncle Sam, who has been wrongfully incarcerated in the Hollywood Hospital for the Psychiatrically Challenged, escapes with the help of Charlie Chan, and begins a presidential campaign, assisted by an unlikely and incredible electoral team, including, among others, Black Hawk, Davy Crockett, Paul Bunyan, Mark Twain, Superman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Zapata, George Washington, Janis Joplin, Curt Cobain, Rabbi Harpo Marx, and Mr Ed. To cut a long narrative short, Uncle Sam's truly liberal and leftish platform, along with his witty savaging of his two opponents and avaricious corporations in a television debate, leads to a refreshing and volcanic victory.


Television

''Singing the Seventies'' A six-part series embracing the culture of the Seventies. Each episode is situated in a different Melbourne suburb. Each episode devotes itself to a particular profession of occupation. For example, Carlton is theatre; the CBD, finance; South Melbourne, the media, etc. There are number of through-characters who bind the free-standing episodes together.


Awards

*State Library of Victoria Creative Fellowships 2005


References

* *


Bibliography

*


External links


More complete list of worksPapers of Jack Hibberd at the National Library of Australia (43 boxes)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hibberd, Jack 1940 births Living people Melbourne Medical School alumni 20th-century Australian novelists 20th-century Australian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Australian poets Australian male novelists Australian opera librettists Australian immunologists Australian lexicographers Australian male poets Australian male dramatists and playwrights People from Warracknabeal Writers from Victoria (Australia) 20th-century Australian male writers Australian general practitioners