Peter Joseph Kenna (18 March 193029 November 1987) was an Australian playwright, radio actor and screenwriter. He has been called "a quasi-legendary figure in Australian theatre, never quite fashionable, but never quite forgotten either."
Biography
Early life
Born in
Balmain, New South Wales
Balmain is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Balmain is located west of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Australia, local government area of the Inner West Council.
It is locate ...
, Kenna left school at fourteen and took up various jobs. He started working in the theatre by participating in concert parties at the camps in Sydney during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
Career
His first play was written when he was 21.
[
In 1959. the play '']The Slaughter of St Teresa's Day
''The Slaughter of St. Teresa's Day'' is a play by Australian author Peter Kenna.
Plot
Oola Maguire, a bookie, holds a party every St. Teresa's Day. The guests are the people she has quarreled with in the past year, and there is only one rule: Fi ...
'' was produced in Sydney, based on the life of Tilly Devine
Matilda Mary Devine (née Twiss, 8 September 190024 November 1970), known as Tilly Devine, was an English Australian organised crime boss. She was involved in a wide range of activities, including sly-grog, razor gangs, and prostitution, and b ...
. The play was turned into a television drama in 1960.
He wrote the screenplay for the film ''The Good Wife
''The Good Wife'' is an American legal and political drama television series that aired on CBS from September 22, 2009, to May 8, 2016. It focuses on Alicia Florrick, the wife of the Cook County State's Attorney, who returns to her career in l ...
'' (also known as ''The Umbrella Woman'') produced in 1987, a World War II drama about a man, his wife and his brother. The film starred Bryan Brown
Bryan Neathway Brown AM (born 23 June 1947) is an Australian actor. He has performed in over eighty film and television projects since the late 1970s, both in his native Australia and abroad. Notable films include '' Breaker Morant'' (1980), ...
, Rachel Ward
Rachel Claire Ward (born 12 September 1957) is an English-Australian and Sam Neill
Sir Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill (born 14 September 1947) is a New Zealand actor. Neill's near-50 year career has included leading roles in both dramas and blockbusters. Considered an "international leading man", he has been regarded as one o ...
. Rachel Ward won the Tokyo International Film Festival
The is a film festival established in 1985. The event was held biennially from 1985 to 1991 and annually thereafter. Along with the Shanghai International Film Festival, it is one of Asia's competitive film festivals, and is considered to be the ...
award for best actress for the film, and Jennie Tate the Australian Film Institute
The Australian Film Institute (AFI) was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry. It is responsib ...
award for Best Achievement in Costume Design.
Death
He died in Sydney on 29 November 1987 after a long illness.
Works
Plays
* ''The Slaughter of St Teresa's Day
''The Slaughter of St. Teresa's Day'' is a play by Australian author Peter Kenna.
Plot
Oola Maguire, a bookie, holds a party every St. Teresa's Day. The guests are the people she has quarreled with in the past year, and there is only one rule: Fi ...
'' (1959 - published 1972, Currency Press
Currency Press is a leading performing arts publisher and its oldest independent publisher still active. Their list includes plays and screenplays, professional handbooks, biographies, cultural histories, critical studies and reference works.
H ...
)
* ''Talk to the Moon'' (1963 - published 1977, Currency Press)
* ''Listen Closely'' (1972 - published 1977, Currency Press)
* ''Muriel's Virtues'' (1966)[
* ''Animal Grab'']
* ''An Eager Hope''[
* ''The Fair Sister''][
* ''The Landladies''][
* '']A Hard God
''A Hard God'' is a semi-autobiographical play by Peter Kenna.Leslie Rees, ''Australian Drama in the 1970s'', Angus & Robertson, 1978 p 192-194
The play was very popular and has come to be regarded as an Australian classic.
1974 Film
The Nimrod ...
'' (1974, Currency Press)
* ''Mates'' (1977, Currency Press)
* ''Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted'' (1977, Currency Press)
* ''Furtive Love'' (1980, Currency Press)
Television writing
* ''The Slaughter of St Theresa's Day'' (1960) (adapted for TV)
* ''Dust or Polish'' (1972) (TV, adaptation of a novel by Norman Lindsay
Norman Alfred William Lindsay (22 February 1879 – 21 November 1969) was an Australian artist, etcher, sculptor, writer, art critic, novelist, cartoonist and amateur boxing, boxer. One of the most prolific and popular Australian artists of his ...
)
* ''The Emigrants'' (1976) (BBC TV)
* ''A Hard God'' (1981) (adapted for TV)
Film
* ''The Good Wife'' (1987)
Notes
References
AustLit Agent - Kenna, Peter Joseph
(Retrieved 9 March 2008)
(Retrieved 9 March 2008)
Fifty Australians - Tilly Devine
Australian War Memorial (Retrieved 9 March 2008)
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kenna, Peter Joseph
1930 births
1987 deaths
Australian male dramatists and playwrights
Australian screenwriters
Australian television writers
20th-century Australian dramatists and playwrights
Australian male television writers
Burials at Rookwood Cemetery
20th-century Australian screenwriters