‘Droughts and Flooding Rains’: Ecology and Australian Theatre in the 1950s
This article uses historical-ecological insights for a re-reading of two little-known mid-twentieth-century Australian plays, Oriel Gray’s The Torrents and Eunice Hanger’s Flood , which highlight developments relevant to the environmental disasters of today. In particular, the article focuses on the...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x22000239 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0266464X22000239 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0266464x22000239 2024-03-03T08:44:26+00:00 ‘Droughts and Flooding Rains’: Ecology and Australian Theatre in the 1950s Varney, Denise 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x22000239 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0266464X22000239 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ New Theatre Quarterly volume 38, issue 4, page 319-332 ISSN 0266-464X 1474-0613 Visual Arts and Performing Arts journal-article 2022 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x22000239 2024-02-08T08:35:18Z This article uses historical-ecological insights for a re-reading of two little-known mid-twentieth-century Australian plays, Oriel Gray’s The Torrents and Eunice Hanger’s Flood , which highlight developments relevant to the environmental disasters of today. In particular, the article focuses on the significance of key cultural assumptions embedded in the texts – and a revival of The Torrents in 2019 – including those to do with land use in a period of accelerating development. This approach offers new insights into the dominance of mining, irrigation, and dam-building activities within the Australian ethos, landscape, and economy. One of these insights is the framing of development as progressive. The article thus also examines how development projected as progressive takes place amid the continuing denial of prior occupation of the land by First Nations peoples and of knowledge systems developed over thousands of years. The intersectional settler-colonialist-ecocritical approach here seeks to capture the compounding ecosystem that is modern Australian theatre and its critique. The intention is not to apply revisionist critiques of 1950s plays but to explore the historical relationship between humans, colonialism, and the physical environment over time. Denise Varney is Professor of Theatre Studies in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. Her research is in modern and contemporary theatre and performance, with published work in the areas of ecocriticism, feminism, and Australian theatre. Her most recent book is Patrick White’s Theatre: Australian Modernism on Stage 1960–2018 (Sydney University Press, 2021). Article in Journal/Newspaper First Nations Cambridge University Press Denise ENVELOPE(70.233,70.233,-49.350,-49.350) New Theatre Quarterly 38 4 319 332 |
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Cambridge University Press |
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English |
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Visual Arts and Performing Arts |
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Visual Arts and Performing Arts Varney, Denise ‘Droughts and Flooding Rains’: Ecology and Australian Theatre in the 1950s |
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Visual Arts and Performing Arts |
description |
This article uses historical-ecological insights for a re-reading of two little-known mid-twentieth-century Australian plays, Oriel Gray’s The Torrents and Eunice Hanger’s Flood , which highlight developments relevant to the environmental disasters of today. In particular, the article focuses on the significance of key cultural assumptions embedded in the texts – and a revival of The Torrents in 2019 – including those to do with land use in a period of accelerating development. This approach offers new insights into the dominance of mining, irrigation, and dam-building activities within the Australian ethos, landscape, and economy. One of these insights is the framing of development as progressive. The article thus also examines how development projected as progressive takes place amid the continuing denial of prior occupation of the land by First Nations peoples and of knowledge systems developed over thousands of years. The intersectional settler-colonialist-ecocritical approach here seeks to capture the compounding ecosystem that is modern Australian theatre and its critique. The intention is not to apply revisionist critiques of 1950s plays but to explore the historical relationship between humans, colonialism, and the physical environment over time. Denise Varney is Professor of Theatre Studies in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. Her research is in modern and contemporary theatre and performance, with published work in the areas of ecocriticism, feminism, and Australian theatre. Her most recent book is Patrick White’s Theatre: Australian Modernism on Stage 1960–2018 (Sydney University Press, 2021). |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Varney, Denise |
author_facet |
Varney, Denise |
author_sort |
Varney, Denise |
title |
‘Droughts and Flooding Rains’: Ecology and Australian Theatre in the 1950s |
title_short |
‘Droughts and Flooding Rains’: Ecology and Australian Theatre in the 1950s |
title_full |
‘Droughts and Flooding Rains’: Ecology and Australian Theatre in the 1950s |
title_fullStr |
‘Droughts and Flooding Rains’: Ecology and Australian Theatre in the 1950s |
title_full_unstemmed |
‘Droughts and Flooding Rains’: Ecology and Australian Theatre in the 1950s |
title_sort |
‘droughts and flooding rains’: ecology and australian theatre in the 1950s |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x22000239 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0266464X22000239 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(70.233,70.233,-49.350,-49.350) |
geographic |
Denise |
geographic_facet |
Denise |
genre |
First Nations |
genre_facet |
First Nations |
op_source |
New Theatre Quarterly volume 38, issue 4, page 319-332 ISSN 0266-464X 1474-0613 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x22000239 |
container_title |
New Theatre Quarterly |
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38 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
319 |
op_container_end_page |
332 |
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