''The Passionate Pianist'' is an Australian television film, or rather a live one-off television play, which aired in 1957 on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

. This was part of ABC's twice monthly presentations of live plays during the late-1950s (one live play each month in Sydney and Melbourne, respectively, with most kinescoped for showing in the other city). At the time, most one-off drama and comedy plays produced for Australian television were adaptations of overseas works, and ''The Passionate Pianist'' is notable as it represents an early example of a locally-written comedy for the medium.

Plot summary

Ben, the teenage son of a Sydney bookmaker prefers football to practicing piano. His mother (Marion Johns) is convinced he is a genius and enters him in an eistedford.

Cast

*Mark Kelly as Ben *Marion Johns as Ben’s Mother * Edward Howell *Ivor Bromley * Bruce A. Wishart

Play version

''The Passionate Pianist'' was produced as a one act play. Barbara Vernon was a radio announcer in Inverell and wrote the play for Con Fardouly, a Greek who ran a cafe in Inverell. It was first performed at the Inverell Town Hall, on 22 November 1957. The cast included Lee Jones, Nell Stewart, Frank Sloman, Rob Jeffs, and Con Fardouly. It is part of the trilogy 'The Growing Year', which also includes Vernon's unpublished plays 'The Bishop and the Boxer' and 'First Love'.

Production

Rehearsals began in September 1957. It is not known if the kinescope recording of the program still exists.

Radio Adaptation

The play was also adapted for radio.

Follow up

Barbara Vernon is also known for writing the play ''

The Multi-Coloured Umbrella ''The Multi-Coloured Umbrella'' is an Australian play written by Barbara Vernon. Plot The play is set at a house in Bondi Beach belonging to the Donnellys, an upwardly mobile family who are bookmakers at Randwick Racecourse. The younger son, Jo ...

'', which saw a television version in 1958. It was focused on the same family of Sydney book makers.

References

External links

''The Passionate Pianist'' at IMDb''Passionate Pianist''
at

AustLit AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource (also known as AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway; and AustLit: The Resource for Australian Literature), usually referred to simply as AustLit, is an internet-based, non-profit collaboration betwee ...

1957 television plays Australian plays 1950s Australian television plays Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming English-language television shows Black-and-white Australian television shows Australian live television shows Films about pianos and pianists 1950s Australian plays Works by Barbara Vernon {{Australia-tv-film-stub