Australian Theatre, Modernism and Patrick White: Governing Culture. By Denise Varney and Sandra D'Urso. London and New York: Anthem Press, 2018. Pp. viii + 109. £45/$79.95 Hb.

Abstract

This short but compelling book tells the story of the Noble-prize winning writer Patrick White’s involvement in a then-emerging Adelaide Festival of the Arts with two of his best-known plays. The Ham Funeral and Night on Bald Mountain were recommended for production by the Festival’s Drama Committee in 1961 and 1963 respectively. Both were rejected by its Governors as too risky and “unsavoury”. These rejections were fateful, however, catalysing a debate about who has the right to decide what Australians see on their stages. This in turn fed into broader agitation against censorship laws, and against the apparatus of an oppressive colonial paternalism. In the book, this paternalism is encountered at its most ridiculous. But it would not be right to conclude, and indeed the authors do not conclude, that it is a force banished from Australian culture together.