Away (play)

Away
Author Michael Gow
Translator Away
Country Australia
Language English
Genre Play
Publisher Currency Press
Publication date
 1986
Media type Print (Paperback)
ISBN 978-0-86819-211-6

Away is a play written by the Australian playwright Michael Gow. First performed by the Griffin Theatre Company in 1986, it tells the story of three internally conflicted families holidaying on the coast for Christmas, 1968. It has become one of the most widely produced Australian plays of all time and is part of the Higher School Certificate syllabi or general High School Curriculum in many states, including Western Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria.

Synopsis

Each of the three families hopes that the holiday will resolve the crisis that they face. Roy, a headmaster, and Coral, his wife, realise that their marriage is falling apart as they grieve the death of their son in the Vietnam War. Tom, an English immigrant and a pupil at Roy's school, knows that he is dying of leukaemia even though his parents, Harry and Vic, have yet to tell him. Tom's family know that this could be their last holiday together, so they are determined to have fun. The third family comprises uptight, martyrish mother, Gwen, her husband, Jim, and their daughter, Meg, who has become friends with Tom because of their mutual appearances in the recent school play. There is a mutual affection between Meg and Tom that is explored and challenged during a sex scene, where Tom - aware that his life is soon to end - transforms into a desperate weeping puppy and begs Meg to "Let (him) do it to (her)". After a storm the three families find themselves thrown together on the beach that is the play's setting and their antagonism is explored and resolved.

With the play's conscious nods to Shakespeare (it opens with the school's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and ends with King Lear) Gow emphasises the performativity of individual human responses to death, racism, class, and relationships. Gow sees the play as largely autobiographical.

Productions

First production

Away was first performed by the Griffin Theatre Company on 7 January 1986 at the Stables Theatre, Sydney, with the following cast:

  • TOM: Christian Hodge
  • ROY: Benjamin Franklin
  • MEG: Angela Toohey
  • GWEN: Andrea Moor
  • JIM: David Lynch
  • CORAL: Vanessa Downing
  • HARRY: Geoff Morrell
  • VIC: Julie Godfrey
  • LEONIE: Angela Toohey
  • RICK: Christian Hodge
  • Campers, hotel guests, fairies etc. were played by the company.
  • Directed by Peter Kingston
  • Designed by Robert Kemp
  • Lighting design by Liz Allen

Subsequent productions

In 2005, a national Australian tour commemorated the play's 20th anniversary. It was a co-production with the Queensland Theatre Company and the Griffin Theatre Company. Michael Gow was then Artistic Director of the Queensland Theatre Company and the return of Away to the Griffin was a cause for great celebration. The production then embarked on a sold out national tour.

When the play was performed in the USA, many Americans did not realise Australia had been involved in the Vietnam War. They did not realise that many young Australians were killed in the Vietnam War or how unpopular the war had been due to conscription.

Characters

  • Tom
  • Roy
  • Coral
  • Meg
  • Gwen (Meg's Mother)
  • Jim (Meg's Father)
  • Vic (Tom's Mother)
  • Harry (Tom's Father)
  • Leonie
  • Rick
  • Jafar (Coral and Roy’s Son)
  • Miss Latrobe
  • First Camper
  • Second Camper
  • Third Camper
  • Fourth Camper

Awards

Bibliography

  • Beckett, Wendy. Michael Gow's Away (Glebe: Pascal Press, 1993)
  • Bramwell, Murray. 'Dreamtime', Adelaide Review, No.46 January 1988 : pp. 21–22
  • Gay, Penny. 'Michael Gow's Away: the Shakespeare connection', Reconnoitres: Essays in Australian Literature in Honour of G.A. Wilkes 1992 pp. 204–213,
  • Gow, Michael (1986). Away. Sydney: Currency Press. ISBN 978-0-86819-211-6.
  • Hough, David. 'Away off the Mark', The Bulletin 1992, Vol.114 No.5838, 22 September. pp. 82–83
  • Mitchell, Heather. Brodies notes on Michael Gow's Away (Sydney: Pan, 1988)
  • Payne, Pamela. 'Gow goes for less sentimentality, more power', Sydney Morning Herald 12 June 1992 : p16
  • Radic, Leonard. The state of play: revolution in the Australian theatre since the 1960s, (Ringwood: Penguin, 1991)
  • Webby, Elizabeth. 'Away', Modern Australian Plays 1990 pp. 54–64
  • Beverly Baptist College 2012 "modern Australian plays 2012"

References

    • Gow, Michael (1986). Away. Sydney: Currency Press. ISBN 978-0-86819-211-6.
    • Maley, Jacqueline. 'Moan and Away', Sydney Morning Herald, 4 June 2004. Retrieved 24 August 2005.
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