''Juggler's Three'' is an Australian play by

David Williamson David Keith Williamson AO (born 24 February 1942) is an Australian dramatist and playwright. He has also written screenplays and teleplays. Early life David Williamson was born in Melbourne, Victoria, on 24 February 1942, and was brought ...

. It was based on the breakup of his first marriage, when he left his pregnant wife for a woman who left her husband.

Background

The play was commissioned by John Sumner of the

Melbourne Theatre Company The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1953 as the Union Theatre Repertory Company at the Union Theatre at the University of Melbourne, it is the oldest professional theatre com ...

in mid 1971. Williamson submitted a storyline called ''Return from Vietname'' about a conscript, Graham, who discovers his wife, Karen, has left him for an economist, Neville. The play was originally titled ''Third World Blues'' but the MTC requested this be changed to ''Juggler's Three''. The play underwent many revisions, and at one stage included sequences set in Vietnam. The first production was very well reviewed and later transferred from Russell St Theatre to Harry M. Miller's Melbourne Playbox Theatre, which was rare for Australian plays at the time Williamson later called the play "a hysterical and unresearched piece of melodramatical nonsense."

''Third World Blues''

Williamson later reworked the play again in 1996 as ''Third World Blues''."Background to Third World Blues", ''Performing Arts Collection''
accessed 26 Oct 2012 This was done at the behest of Wayne Harrison, the director, who was an admirer of the original play. There had been a well publicised conflict between Harrison and Williamson over the staging of ''Heretic'' but they reunited for this play. Williamson rewrote the play after researching by talking to Vietnam veterans and counsellors saying "I slowly started to realise just how traumatic war and combat is for most participants." He also made key structural changes saying "the original was virtually in farce form - there was something like 39 entrances and exits. It's down to 19 now, which structurally makes it half as farcical as before."

References

Notes

*Brian Kiernan, ''David Williamson: A Writer's Career'', Currency Press, 1996 {{David Williamson 1972 plays 1996 plays Plays by David Williamson