Peter O'Shaughnessy OAM (5 October 1923 – 17 July 2013) was an Australian actor, theatre director, producer and writer who presented the work of playwrights ranging from

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

, Shaw,

Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright, poet and actor. Ibsen is considered the world's pre-eminent dramatist of the 19th century and is often referred to as "the father of modern drama." He pioneered ...

Strindberg Johan August Strindberg (; ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than 60 play ...

Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

to modern dramatists, such as Ionesco, Pinter and Beckett. He acted as a mentor to and collaborator with comedian

Barry Humphries John Barry Humphries (17 February 1934 – 22 April 2023) was an Australian comedian, actor, author and satirist. He was best known for writing and playing his stage and television characters Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. He appeare ...

in his early career. He attended

Xavier College Xavier College is a Roman Catholic, day and boarding school predominantly for boys, founded in 1872 by the Society of Jesus, with its main campus located in Kew, an eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Classes started in 1878. The ...

, Melbourne. O'Shaughnessy was a minor exponent of

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

, both in Australia and in Ireland. He produced the first ''

Waiting for Godot ''Waiting for Godot'' ( or ) is a 1953 play by Irish writer and playwright Samuel Beckett, in which the two main characters, Vladimir (Waiting for Godot), Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), engage in a variety of discussions and encounters w ...

'' in Australia in 1957. He played Krapp in the Australian premier of ''

Krapp's Last Tape ''Krapp's Last Tape'' is a 1958 one-act play, in English, by Samuel Beckett. With a cast of one man, it was written for Northern Irish actor Patrick Magee (actor), Patrick Magee and first titled "Magee monologue". It was inspired by Beckett's e ...

'' at the Arts Theatre in Melbourne in 1959. He also toured a second production of Godot in Sydney and Canberra in 1969, and later directed the Irish premières of '' Not I'' (1978), '' Footfalls'' (1978), and '' Rockaby'' (1984), and unofficial world premiers of ''Theatre I'' and ''Theatre II'' (later published in modified form as ''Rough for Theatre I and II'') in Cambridge in 1977. O'Shaughnessy was also noted for his one-act performances of '' Diary of a Madman'', adapted from

Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; ; (; () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright of Ukrainian origin. Gogol used the grotesque in his writings, for example, in his works " The Nose", " Viy", "The Overcoat", and " Nevsky Prosp ...

. In 1968 he co-created an illustrated anthology, ''The Restless Years'', based on his award-winning television program of the same name (not to be confused with the 1977–81 soap opera '' The Restless Years''). After bringing

to Australian audiences in the 1960s, his Australian career was cut short after a devastating review published in ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet daily newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership of b ...

'' by Katharine Brisbane. After a trial and an unsuccessful appeal, the case was ultimately determined in the

High Court of Australia The High Court of Australia is the apex court of the Australian legal system. It exercises original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified in the Constitution of Australia and supplementary legislation. The High Court was establi ...

, where a new trial was ordered."O'Shaughnessy v. Mirror Newspaper Ltd"
(1970) 125 CLR 166, austlii.edu.au; at pages 172–77. However, he ceased working in Australia. In 1970 he left for London and continued to act in and direct Shakespeare in the UK and Ireland. For The British Council he has lectured on the plays of Shakespeare to universities in many countries of Europe, and in West Africa and South America. As a historian, his two books on General

Joseph Holt Joseph Holt (January 6, 1807 – August 1, 1894) was an American lawyer, soldier, and politician. As a leading member of the James Buchanan#Administration and Cabinet, Buchanan administration, he succeeded in convincing Buchanan to oppose the ...

and his book on John Mitchel focused on Australian/Irish history.

Collaboration with Barry Humphries

One of O'Shaughnessy's lasting legacies was his mentoring of the young

who has acknowledged that, "without O'Shaughnessy's nurturing and promotion, the character of Edna Everage would have been nipped in the bud after 1956 and never come to flower, while the character of Sandy Stone would never have taken shape as a presence on the stage". With O'Shaughnessy's encouragement, the character (Everage) ... developed considerably. In September 1957, he staged the first Australian production of

's ''

'' at the Arrow Theatre in Melbourne with himself as Vladimir and Humphries as Estragon. It proved a hit with both audiences and critics. The critic of the

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

''Sun'' wrote "so engrossing and well-done is this extraordinary adventure by Samuel Beckett regimented by Peter O'Shaughnessy's tender care that for me the evening passed by on wings". Later in the same year, O'Shaughnessy planned a production of

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

's '' Pygmalion'' for December, in tandem with a children's play to be performed at matinees. Part of the idea for a bush story involving a bunyip came from Frank Dalby Davison's book ''Children of the Dark People'' in which Old Man Bunyip is a wise guardian of the bush. After rejecting various scripts, O'Shaughnessy, Humphries and two radio scriptwriters, Jeff Underhill and Don Whitelock, produced their own script, which became '' The Bunyip and the Satellite''. The children's show was a hit, and Humphries' performance as the Bunyip widely praised. O'Shaughnessy himself wrote that "Barry's performance as The Bunyip was the finest and most touching he had ever given in the theatre, and the character very close to his secret heart." Humphries described his creation as a "prancing bird-like clown with a falsetto that inevitably got huskier after twelve performances a week". In an interview in the Australian magazine ''Theatre'' in 1960, Humphries went further by linking the bush creature with another of his recent creations, the suburban denizen Edna Everage: 'I notice Mrs Everage sometimes behaves in a slightly Bunyippy way ... she gives a spasmodic leap, which I subsequently recognise as a rather bunyippy trait.

High Court Case

O'Shaughnessy received a scathing review for the 1967 Sydney production of ''

Othello ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'', often shortened to ''Othello'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare around 1603. Set in Venice and Cyprus, the play depicts the Moorish military commander Othello as he is manipulat ...

'', which he directed and starred as Othello, from theatre critic for ''

'', Katharine Brisbane. She said, in part: "Stupidity and lack of talent are forgivable; brave failures are deserving of praise – these are every day human failings. But the waste and dishonesty of this production ... made me very angry indeed." O'Shaughnessy launched action for

defamation Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...

. The case for O'Shaughnessy was argued before the High Court by 27-year-old junior counsel Mary Gaudron (later a High Court judge) in her first High Court case after O'Shaughnessy sacked Clive Evatt. According to O'Shaughnessy, "she cut a valiant figure, this 'slip of a girl', who stood unsupported before the five legal elders of the land. They were obviously impressed by her courage, her sheer elegant dash, her shining intellect finding expression in felicitous language, her good manners, charm, poise. And perhaps, when all is said and done, by her sheer cheek in taking on the case." He won a unanimous judgment, successfully arguing that Brisbane had imputed that he had promoted his performance at the expense of his fellow actors, and that it was open to the jury to find that the use of the word 'dishonest' imputed such a dishonourable motive and therefore could be viewed as a statement of fact which had to be justified by evidence of which there was none to that effect. In a joint judgment, Barwick, McTiernan, Menzies and Owen wrote: "This is one of those cases where the critic, in making her evaluation that the production was a disaster ... did not plainly confine herself to commenting upon facts truly stated; she wrote what could, we think, have been regarded as amounting to a defamatory statement of fact, viz. that the producer dishonestly suppressed the roles of other players to highlight his own role." In a separate judgment, Windeyer went further: "the matter published by the respondent in its newspaper was a vigorous, and in parts abusive criticism of a public performance of 'Othello'". The court held this was not fair comment on the performance as such, and ordered a retrial. However, the case did not go back to court. The newspaper settled with O'Shaughnessy. However, it had a lasting impact on O'Shaughnessy's career, for he left for London shortly afterwards effectively ending his career on the Australian stage. As for Brisbane, she saw it the making of her career: "So they settled ... which was a bit sad. But after that my columns were read."

Legacy

Phillip Adams wrote in ''

'', under the banner "Gonged but not forgotten", an article pointing out a number of Australians who had made a significant contribution to their respective fields who had not received the public recognition of an

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

' ... here's a partial list of the worthies who didn't make the cut ... Peter O'Shaughnessy for his titanic and sadly overlooked services to Australian theatre in the 1960s'. In the 2013 Australia Day Honours List, O'Shaughnessy was awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) "for service to the performing arts as a writer, theatre director, actor, historian and folklorist".

Books by O'Shaughnessy

* Peter O'Shaughnessy, Graeme Inson, and

Russel Ward Russel Braddock Ward AM (9 November 1914 – 13 August 1995) was an Australian historian. He is best known for ''The Australian Legend'' (1958), an examination of the development of the " Australian character", which was awarded the Ernest Sc ...

, ''The Restless Years – Being Some Impressions of the Origin of the Australian'', The Jacaranda Press (1968), ASIN: B004H4EYJI. * Peter O'Shaughnessy, ''The Fabulous Journey of Mac Con Glin'', Sabrainne (1989), ASIN: B0007BNZPY.

References

External links