''The Chocolate Frog'' was a short Australian play by

Jim McNeil James Thomas McNeil (23 January 1935 – 16 May 1982) was an Australian award-winning playwright. While serving a 17-year sentence in Parramatta Correctional Centre for armed robbery and shooting a police officer, McNeil began writing plays. With ...

. It was written when McNeil was in prison. The play was first performed in Parramatta Gaol by the Resurgents' Club, a club set up by inmates interested in debating ideas. The performance was seen by several theatre identities, including

Katharine Brisbane Katharine Brisbane AM (born 1932) is an Australian journalist and publisher, well known for her writings as a theatre critic. Early life and education Katharine Brisbane was born in Singapore in 1932, to David Williams, a civil engineer, ...

, the national theatre critic of ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

''. They later assisted McNeil in his application for parole.Raymond Gill, "The prose of a con"
''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'', 30 June 2012 accessed 26 March 2013 The play has come to be regarded as an Australian classic.Leslie Rees, ''Australian Drama in the 1970s'', Angus & Robertson, 1978 p 160-161

References

External links

''The Chocolate Frog''
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 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chocolate Frog, The Australian plays 1971 plays