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| episode = 17
| episode = 17
| director = [[Christopher Muir]]
| director = [[Christopher Muir]]
| teleplay = [[Noel Robinson (writer)|Noel Robinson]]<br>based on play by Hal Porter
| teleplay = [[Noel Robinson (writer)|Noel Robinson]]
|based on = a play by Hal Porter
| producer =
| producer =
| photographer =
| photographer =
| airdate = 28 April 1965<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|title=Music and Drama|date=28 April 1965|page=12}}</ref>
| airdate = 28 April 1965 (Sydney)<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|title=Music and Drama|date=28 April 1965|page=12}}</ref>
| length = 75 mins<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131769211 |title=WEDNESDAY |newspaper=[[The Canberra Times]] |volume=39 |issue=11,139 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=26 April 1965 |accessdate=20 March 2017 |page=17 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
| length = 75 mins<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131769211 |title=WEDNESDAY |newspaper=[[The Canberra Times]] |volume=39 |issue=11,139 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=26 April 1965 |accessdate=20 March 2017 |page=17 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
| guests =
| guests =
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| next = [[Daphne Laureola (film)|Daphne Laureola]]
| next = [[Daphne Laureola (film)|Daphne Laureola]]
}}
}}
'''''The Tower''''' is a 1965 TV play broadcast by the [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] as part of ''[[Wednesday Theatre]]''. It was written by [[Hal Porter]]<ref>{{Cite book|title=Hal Porter, the Watcher|work=Southerly|volume= 24|issue=2|date=June 1964}}</ref> and directed by [[Christopher Muir]] in the ABC's studios in Melbourne.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131769570 |title=Hal Porter's The Tower |newspaper=[[The Canberra Times]] |volume=39 |issue=11,141 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=28 April 1965 |accessdate=8 December 2016 |page=21 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131770025 |title=Actors towered over production |newspaper=[[The Canberra Times]] |volume=39 |issue=11,143 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=30 April 1965 |accessdate=8 December 2016 |page=21 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
'''''The Tower''''' is a 1965 TV play broadcast by the [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] as part of ''[[Wednesday Theatre]]''. It was based on a play by [[Hal Porter]]<ref>{{Cite book|title=Hal Porter, the Watcher|work=Southerly|volume= 24|issue=2|date=June 1964}}</ref> and directed by [[Christopher Muir]] in the ABC's studios in Melbourne.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131769570 |title=Hal Porter's The Tower |newspaper=[[The Canberra Times]] |volume=39 |issue=11,141 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=28 April 1965 |accessdate=8 December 2016 |page=21 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>


Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/60-australian-tv-plays-1950s-60s/|magazine=Filmink|title=60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s|date=February 18, 2019}}</ref>
Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/60-australian-tv-plays-1950s-60s/|magazine=Filmink|title=60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s|date=February 18, 2019}}</ref>
==Premise==
In 1850s Hobart Sir Rodney Haviland builds a tower. He lives with his sister Hester and ex convict, Knight. Amy Armstrong is Sir Rodney's step daughter and resents his new wife Selina. Amy is having an affair with the convict Marcus Knight. Sir Rodney is trying to arrange a marriage for Amy that will advance his prospects in London. Amy has learned that his 14 year old adopted son Edwin is really the son of Knight. Sir Rodney winds up throwing Amy off the top of the tower. <ref>{{Cite magazine|magazine=The Bulletin|first=Madeleine|last=Armstrong|title=THE RED PAGE THE NEW DRAMATISTS Or, Goodbye to All That identifier|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-701241103|page=40|6 April 1953}}</ref>
==Cast==
==Cast==
*Andrew Guild
*Andrew Guild as Edwin
*Judith Arthy
*Judith Arthy as Selina
*Keith Lee
*Keith Lee as Sir Rodney
*Mary Ward
*Mary Ward
*Rex Holdsworth
*Rex Holdsworth
*Jim Lynch
*Jim Lynch
*[[Anne Charleston]]
*[[Anne Charleston]] as Ann
==Original Play==

⚫
The play was published in a collection of Australian plays in 1963 (others included Douglas Stewart's ''Ned Kelly'' and Alan Seymour's ''The One Day of the Year'') before it had even been performed. It had won the Sydney Journalists Club Prize in 1962. It was first produced in London in February 1964.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|title=Three Australian Plans|date=23 March 1963|page=12}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=The Bulletin|first=Patricia|last=Rolfe|title=OUT AND ABOUT The Middle Age of Innocence “The past is so permanent" |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-697902728|date=14 December 1963|page=35}}</ref>
==Production==
⚫
The play was published in a collection of Australian plays in 1963 before it had even been performed. It had won the Sydney Journalists Club Prize in 1962. It was first produced in London in February 1964.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|title=Three Australian Plans|date=23 March 1963|page=12}}</ref>


==Reception==
==Reception==
The critic for ''[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]'' wrote that:
The critic for ''[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]'' wrote that the play was:
<blockquote>Even if it had no other virtues, Hal Porter's "The Tower,"... would be notable as a rare instance of an Australian playwright's attempting to represent the tension between good manners and bad intentions. Porter has taken advantage of the colonial time lag in 19th century Tasmania to allow his characters to clothe their gencratiy poisonous motives in an 18th century decorum, and to make use of an unusually hemstitched and hand-sewn type of language. The easy and tempting criticism to make of this play is that it is stagey and derivative (with a "Rebecca"-like storm and an Ibsenesque tower of a most clumsily symbolic kind) and that it is as fniitily stocked with curtain lines as anything George Miller might present at the Neutral Bay Music Hall. It would be difficult to resist, for example, wry pleasure at the complications of plot implied in the climactic line with which the persecuted Amy (played with convincing anguish by Ann Charlston) defied her ambitiously hollow father (Keith Lee): "'Am I to niarry the father of my 'Stepfather 's son?" But when all this is said the very contrivances of the play guarantee it a taut effectiveness which is by no means as easy to achieve as might appear. And Porter' s depiction of carefully phrased nastiness encourages his audiences lo enjoy hating his more thorough-going villains with a relish that recent plays rarely allow. Much depended in this televised version on its tactfulness in making the most of the play's richly theatrical slrokes without emphasising their potential absurdities. In ihis Porter was well served by the adaptor, Noel Robinson, and by Christopher Muir' s carefully starched and stylish Melbourne production. Andrew Guild as the adopted boy was much less chillingly polished in manner than the script seemed lo demand, and neither the boy's melodramatically revealed father nor the household aunt fitted the author's description as well as they should have ' done, but Judith Aithy as the new young wife was wholly plausible in her pretty malice.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|title=Australian Play on Channel 2|date=29 April 1965|page=15}}</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>Notable as a rare instance of an Australian playwright's attempting to represent the tension between good manners and bad intentions. Porter has taken advantage of the colonial time lag in 19th century Tasmania to allow his characters to clothe their generally poisonous motives in an 18th century decorum, and to make use of an unusually hemstitched and hand-sewn type of language. The easy and tempting criticism to make of this play is that it is stagey and derivative (with a "Rebecca"-like storm and an Ibsenesque tower of a most clumsily symbolic kind) and that it is as fniitily stocked with curtain lines as anything George Miller might present at the Neutral Bay Music Hall... Much depended in this televised version on its tactfulness in making the most of the play's richly theatrical srrokes without emphasising their potential absurdities. In this Porter was well served.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|title=Australian Play on Channel 2|date=29 April 1965|page=15}}</ref></blockquote>
The ''Canberra Times'' said the play's "weakness is in its over slylisalion, overstatement and melodrama. It is a splendidly theatrical play of its type, and it ought to have made rather better television than it did in Christopher Muir's production." <ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131770025 |title=Actors towered over production |newspaper=[[The Canberra Times]] |volume=39 |issue=11,143 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=30 April 1965 |accessdate=8 December 2016 |page=21 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>


==See also==
==See also==
Line 45: Line 48:
*[https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/work/12117 Australian theatre productions] at [[Ausstage]]
*[https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/work/12117 Australian theatre productions] at [[Ausstage]]
*[http://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/7119689 ''The Tower''] at [[AustLit]]
*[http://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/7119689 ''The Tower''] at [[AustLit]]
*[http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-689216682 Review of 1964

{{Christopher Muir}}
{{Christopher Muir}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2019}}

Revision as of 04:23, 21 April 2020

"The Tower"
Wednesday Theatre episode
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 17
Directed byChristopher Muir
Teleplay byNoel Robinson
Original air date28 April 1965 (Sydney)[1]
Running time75 mins[2]
Episode chronology
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List of episodes

The Tower is a 1965 TV play broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as part of Wednesday Theatre. It was based on a play by Hal Porter[3] and directed by Christopher Muir in the ABC's studios in Melbourne.[4]

Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.[5]

Premise

In 1850s Hobart Sir Rodney Haviland builds a tower. He lives with his sister Hester and ex convict, Knight. Amy Armstrong is Sir Rodney's step daughter and resents his new wife Selina. Amy is having an affair with the convict Marcus Knight. Sir Rodney is trying to arrange a marriage for Amy that will advance his prospects in London. Amy has learned that his 14 year old adopted son Edwin is really the son of Knight. Sir Rodney winds up throwing Amy off the top of the tower. [6]

Cast

  • Andrew Guild as Edwin
  • Judith Arthy as Selina
  • Keith Lee as Sir Rodney
  • Mary Ward
  • Rex Holdsworth
  • Jim Lynch
  • Anne Charleston as Ann

Original Play

The play was published in a collection of Australian plays in 1963 (others included Douglas Stewart's Ned Kelly and Alan Seymour's The One Day of the Year) before it had even been performed. It had won the Sydney Journalists Club Prize in 1962. It was first produced in London in February 1964.[7][8]

Reception

The critic for The Sydney Morning Herald wrote that the play was:

Notable as a rare instance of an Australian playwright's attempting to represent the tension between good manners and bad intentions. Porter has taken advantage of the colonial time lag in 19th century Tasmania to allow his characters to clothe their generally poisonous motives in an 18th century decorum, and to make use of an unusually hemstitched and hand-sewn type of language. The easy and tempting criticism to make of this play is that it is stagey and derivative (with a "Rebecca"-like storm and an Ibsenesque tower of a most clumsily symbolic kind) and that it is as fniitily stocked with curtain lines as anything George Miller might present at the Neutral Bay Music Hall... Much depended in this televised version on its tactfulness in making the most of the play's richly theatrical srrokes without emphasising their potential absurdities. In this Porter was well served.[9]

The Canberra Times said the play's "weakness is in its over slylisalion, overstatement and melodrama. It is a splendidly theatrical play of its type, and it ought to have made rather better television than it did in Christopher Muir's production." [10]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Music and Drama". Sydney Morning Herald. 28 April 1965. p. 12.
  2. ^ "WEDNESDAY". The Canberra Times. Vol. 39, no. 11, 139. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 26 April 1965. p. 17. Retrieved 20 March 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ Hal Porter, the Watcher. Vol. 24. June 1964. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  4. ^ "Hal Porter's The Tower". The Canberra Times. Vol. 39, no. 11, 141. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 28 April 1965. p. 21. Retrieved 8 December 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ Vagg, Stephen (18 February 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  6. ^ Armstrong, Madeleine. "THE RED PAGE THE NEW DRAMATISTS Or, Goodbye to All That identifier". The Bulletin. p. 40. {{cite magazine}}: Text "6 April 1953" ignored (help)
  7. ^ "Three Australian Plans". Sydney Morning Herald. 23 March 1963. p. 12.
  8. ^ Rolfe, Patricia (14 December 1963). "OUT AND ABOUT The Middle Age of Innocence "The past is so permanent"". The Bulletin. p. 35.
  9. ^ "Australian Play on Channel 2". Sydney Morning Herald. 29 April 1965. p. 15.
  10. ^ "Actors towered over production". The Canberra Times. Vol. 39, no. 11, 143. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 30 April 1965. p. 21. Retrieved 8 December 2016 – via National Library of Australia.

External links

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