Rusty Bugles

''Rusty Bugles'' was a controversial Australian play written by Sumner Locke Elliott in 1948. It toured extensively throughout Australia between 1948–1949 and was threatened with closure by the New South Wales Chief Secretary's Office for obscenity.

Production history

It was first produced by Doris Fitton and Sydney's Independent Theatre company on 14 October 1948, and advertised as an "army comedy documentary". The announcement of its ban was made by J. M. Baddeley, Chief Secretary and acting Premier of New South Wales, on 22 October but after initially defying the ban, Doris Fitton avoided a forced closure by commissioning a rewrite from the author.

The Independent Theatre took the play, after an unprecedented 20-week run in New South Wales, to reopen The King's Theatre, Melbourne. Meanwhile, another company was playing "Rusty Bugles" at Killara, New South Wales, so it was the first Australian play to run simultaneously in two states. The words that were the subject of the ban gradually reappeared; no legal action was ever taken, though rewrites were demanded in different states.

At the end of its record six-month run in Melbourne, the production transferred to Adelaide, then returned to Sydney at The Tatler. But now critics were writing that it was being played for laughs, with the swearing self-conscious rather than part of the patois.

The publisher of the play, Currency Press, quotes Elliott as saying that ''Rusty Bugles'' was 'a documentary... Not strictly a play... it has no plot in the accepted sense'. Elliott did not foresee that shortly after this, the genre of the theatre of the absurd would be established as a 'legitimate' dramatic form where plot and the delineation of character are less important than the insight offered into the implicit drama of most human interactions.

Cast (1948)

* Des Nolan ("Gig") – John Kingsmill
* Vic Richards – Ivor Bromley-Smith
* Sergeant Brooks – Sidney Chambers
* Rod Carsen – Ronald Frazer
* Andy Edwards ("The Little Corporal") – Robert Crome
* Otford ("Ot") – Alistair Roberts
* Mac – Frank O'Donnell
* Ollie – John Unicomb
* Chris – Kevin Healy
* "Darky" McClure – Lloyd Berrell
* "Keghead" Stephens – Ralph Peterson
* Corporal – doubled
* Ken Falcon ("Dean Maitland") – Michael Barnes
* First Private – Jack Wilkinson
* Second Private – James Lyons
* Bill Hendry (YMCA Sergeant) – Frank Curtain
* Private – Peter Hartland
* Jack Turner (Sigs Corporal) – doubled
* Sigs Private – doubled
* Sammy Kuhn – Kenneth Colbert

Adaptations

The play was adapted for TV by the ABC in 1965 and then later in 1981.Ed. Scott Murray, ''Australia on the Small Screen 1970–1995'', Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p135 Both versions were directed by Alan Burke who had directed the stage play in 1949.

The play was also adapted by the ABC for radio in 1965.

1981 film

Sumner Locke Elliot announced in the late 1970s he wanted the play to be filmed.

The ABC filmed it in 1981. It was the second last in a series of play adaptations on the ABC. By this stage the play was established as a modern classic - it had been published by Currency Press in 1980 - and the Herald called it "a wry, rich and intensely Australian comedy peopled by Australian soldiers who chafe at the boredom of life in an out of the way camp while their mates are off fighting a real war."

Alan Burke was again associated with the production as producer, although John Matthews was the director.

Cast

* Graham Corry
* Gary Files as Andy Edwards
* Ian Gilmour as Rod Carson
* Harold Hopkins as Vic Richards
* Mark Hembrow
* Jeremy Kewley
* Serge Lazareff
* Stephen Thomas as Eric Otford
* Graham Rouse
* Tony Barry
* Sean Scully
* Jack Allen as Mac

Reception

The ''Sydney Morning Herald'' called it "one of the more enjoyable programs" of the week, in which the performances "could not be bettered... enjoyed it immensely."

The ''Age'' called it "heady stuff for expatriate Australians and those who have an ear for local slang... the letdowns and character development are predictable, if well done and amusing. What I enjoyed was the throwaway lines."

The critic from the ''Woman's Weekly'' complained about the "quaint, old-fashioned dialogue" and "some quaint, old-fashioned direction" in which "the viewer was never certain he was watching a photographed stage play or a badly re-enacted documentary... A study of boredom, became studiously boring."

''The Canberra Times'' called the 1981 production "the sort of entertainment that makes satire redundant."

Another writer for the ''Age'' thought the ABC had "revived ''Rusty Bugles'' without bothering to work out what it was about" and complained about the historical accuracy of the uniforms.

See also

* List of television plays broadcast on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (1960s)

References

External links

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1980 TV play
at Screen Australia

''Rusty Bugles'' 1980 TV play
at Australian Screen Online

{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2019

1948 plays
Australian films based on plays
Australian plays adapted into films
1981 television films
1981 films
Australian television plays
Plays about World War II