Alan Seymour (6 June 192723 March 2015) was an Australian playwright and author. He is best known for the play ''

The One Day of the Year ''The One Day of the Year'' is a 1958 Australian play by Alan Seymour about contested attitudes to Anzac Day. Plot Alf’s son Hughie and his girlfriend Jan plan to document Anzac Day for the university newspaper, focusing on the drinking on Anz ...

'' (1958). His international reputation rests not only on this early play, but also on his many screenplays, television scripts and adaptations of novels for film and television.

Career

Seymour was born in

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to t ...

. His father was killed in a wharf accident when Alan was nine, and his mother, a Cockney from London, died a few months later.Marc McEvoy, obituary: "The one day of the year became a defining moment in writer's life". ''The Age'', 30 March 2015, p. 34 After that he was brought up by his sister May and her husband, Alfred Chester Cruthers. He was educated at

Perth Modern School , motto_translation = Knowledge is Power , location = Subiaco, Perth, Western Australia , country = Australia , coordinates = , mapframe-stroke-colour = #C60C30 , mapframe-marker-co ...

, leaving at 15 after failing to complete the Junior Certificate. He found work as a radio announcer in a commercial radio station 6PM. During his two years there he wrote a number of short radio plays that were broadcast live. In 1945 he moved to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, where he worked as an advertising copy-writer with 2UE. He returned to Perth after the war where he worked as a free-lance writer for ABC Radio. Seymour became ABC Radio's film critic. He joined a commercial radio station 6KY as an announcer and copy-writer and after six months was offered an announcing post at the ABC. In 1949 he met Ron Baddeley, a RAAF veteran, and they were to become life partners. In November 1949, Seymour returned to Sydney where he became an educational and freelance drama writer for ABC Radio and later television. From 1953 to 1957 he was theatrical director for the Sydney Opera Group. His first play, '' Swamp Creatures'', premièred by the Canberra Repertory Society, was a finalist in the

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

''Observer'' play competition in 1957. Seymour left Australia in 1961 and worked in London as a television writer, producer and commissioning editor with the BBC, and as a theatre critic for ''

The London Magazine ''The London Magazine'' is the title of six different publications that have appeared in succession since 1732. All six have focused on the arts, literature and miscellaneous topics. 1732–1785 ''The London Magazine, or, Gentleman's Monthly I ...

''. From 1966 to 1971 he lived in

İzmir İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban aggl ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

, where Ron Baddeley had gained employment as an English teacher. There Seymour wrote a novelisation of ''The One Day of the Year'', and another novel ''The Coming Self-Destruction of the United States of America'', as well as stage plays and magazine articles. From 1974 to 1981, he was a script editor and occasional producer with

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

, after which he returned to freelance writing. He won a

BAFTA award The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTA Film Awards is an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The cer ...

for his adaptation of

John Masefield John Edward Masefield (; 1 June 1878 – 12 May 1967) was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate from 1930 until 1967. Among his best known works are the children's novels ''The Midnight Folk'' and ''The Box of Delights'', and the poem ...

's novel ''

The Box of Delights ''The Box of Delights'' is a children's fantasy novel by John Masefield. It is a sequel to ''The Midnight Folk'', and was first published in 1935. Also known as "When The Wolves Were Running" Plot Kay Harker is returning from boarding school ...

'' (1984). Seymour and Baddeley returned to Australia in 1995 and lived in

Darlinghurst Darlinghurst is an inner-city, eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Darlinghurst is located immediately east of the Sydney central business district (CBD) and Hyde Park, within the local government area of the City of Sydney. ...

, Sydney. In 2003, after a partnership of almost 55 years, Ron Baddeley died, aged 80. Seymour was awarded the

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

in 2007, and died in an aged care facility in Elizabeth Bay in 2015, aged 87.

''The One Day of the Year''

His best-known play, ''

'' was written in 1958 for an amateur playwriting competition, inspired by an article in the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

newspaper ''

Honi Soit ''Honi Soit'' is the student newspaper of the University of Sydney. First published in 1929, the newspaper is produced by an elected editorial team and a select group of reporters sourced from the university's populace. The name is an abbrev ...

'' lambasting

Anzac Day , image = Dawn service gnangarra 03.jpg , caption = Anzac Day Dawn Service at Kings Park, Western Australia, 25 April 2009, 94th anniversary. , observedby = Australia Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Cook Islands Ne ...

. The play met with huge controversy on its release. Initially it was rejected by the

Adelaide Festival of Arts The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...

Board of Governors in 1960, but was first performed on 20 July 1960 as an amateur production by the Adelaide Theatre Group.Teacher Notes – ''The One Day of the Year''
/ref> In April 1961, at the first professional season at the Palace Theatre in Sydney, a bomb scare during a dress rehearsal forced police to clear the theatre. Later that year the production was staged at the

Theatre Royal Stratford East The Theatre Royal Stratford East is a 460 seat Victorian producing theatre in Stratford in the London Borough of Newham. Since 1953, it has been the home of the Theatre Workshop company, famously associated with director Joan Littlewood, whose ...

, in London. Since then it has been staged regularly throughout Australia and internationally. It is also studied in various school curricula.

Select Writings

*'' Tomorrow's Child'' (1957) – TV play *'' The Lark'' (1959) – TV play *''

One Bright Day ''One Bright Day'' is the fourth album by Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, released in 1989. It won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album The Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was ...

'' (1959) – TV play *'' The Life and Death of King Richard II'' (1960) – TV play *'' The Runner'' (1965) – TV play *''

The Glass Virgin ''The Glass Virgin'' is a British three-part television serial, or long TV movie, first broadcast in 1995, starring Emily Mortimer and Brendan Coyle, directed by Sarah Hellings, based on a novel by Catherine Cookson. Production Producer Ray Mar ...

'' (1995) – television screenplay

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seymour, Alan 1927 births 2015 deaths 20th-century Australian novelists People educated at Perth Modern School Writers from Perth, Western Australia Australian male dramatists and playwrights LGBT writers from Australia People from Fremantle 20th-century Australian dramatists and playwrights Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Australian expatriates in the United Kingdom Australian male novelists 20th-century Australian male writers 21st-century LGBT people