The One Day of the Year
By Alan Seymour
2015 National Tour
February 25 – June 12 2015. 16 weeks tour to 38 venues in VIC, NSW, QLD & WA
Moonee Ponds, Werribee, Nunawading, Wonthaggi, Portland, Drysdale, Frankston, Bairnsdale, Ballarat, Bendigo, Swan Hill, Ararat, Hamilton, Colac, Parramatta, Liverpool, Traralgon, Orange, Dubbo, Cessnock, Port Macquarie, Tenterfield, Surfer’s Paradise, Sutherland, Brisbane, Caloundra, Logan, Maryborough, Capella, Ayr, Proserpine, South Hedland, Carnarvon, Merredin, Thornlie, Kwinana, Margaret River, Albany.
A production by Christine Harris & HIT Productions.
“It’s Anzac Day this week, that’s my day, that’s the old Diggers’ day.”
What is the meaning of Anzac Day? For war veterans like Alf Cook and his friend Wacka Dawson, it’s the chanceto commemorate history, celebrate heroism and conjure national pride. For Alf’s son Hughie, Anzac Day flies the flag for a very different reality, one that brings the dignity of our Diggers to its knees and into the gutter –via one too many down the pub.
Sparking huge controversy on its release in the Sixties, the play’s first ever production had a policeman stationed at the stage door to ward off the angry public. Death threats were issued to the author. A play that incites as much passion now as ever,The One Day of the Yearlooks at our national legend through the eyes of generation, class and character. On the 100 year anniversary of the Gallipoli landing, HIT Productions brings a thoroughly fresh take on this truly Australian classic.
“It is always a privilege to be asked to direct a classic Australian play. Alan Seymour’s The One Day of the Year stands with Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll as a landmark work of the late 1950s. For the first time on the Australian stage, Seymour’s play had the courage to cast a searching eye over one of the nation’s sacred symbolic days -Anzac Day -and to examine, with honesty tempered by compassion, the rifts that open up between family members, generations and classes as a result of this veneration. To revive this great play in the context of the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing is entirely appropriate and will, I’m sure, secure strong houses and induce in audiences a mood of thoughtful celebration.”
– Denis Moore, Director, The One Day of the Year
Cast
Alf Cook: Peter Hardy
Dot Cook: Christine Keogh
Wacka Dawson: Don Bridges
Hughie Cook: Luke Clayson
Jan Castle: Olivia Solomons
Creatives
Playwright: Alan Seymour
Director: Denis Moore
Set Designer: Shaun Gurton
Lighting Designer: Jason Bovaird
Costume Designer: Adrienne Chisholm
Sound Designer: Chris Hubbard