Kain (TV movie)

Kain is a 1966 play loosely based on the biblical story of Cain and Abel.

Production

The play premiered in 1966.[1][2]

Original cast

1967 TV Adaptation

A TV adaptation was directed by Lionel Harris and written by Alan Poolman. It was the first collaboration between the BBC and the ABC.[3] Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.[4]

It was filmed in Australia: exteriors in the Northern Territory near Tennant Creek, at Warrabri and at Devil's Marbles, and interiors at the ABC's Gore Hill studios.[5]

The broadcast ran for 90 minutes and aired 17 April 1967.[6] In the UK it was broadcast in the drama anthology series Theatre 625 as item 17 in series 4. It was thought lost, but survives as 16mm film.[7][8]

Cast[9]
  • Keith Michell
  • Alan White as Rattler
  • J D Devlin as Scotty, a desert wanderer
  • Audine Leith
  • Candy Devine
  • Roger Cox
  • Teddy Plummer
  • Michael Williamson

Production

The play was announced in March 1966.[10]

Reception

The Sydney Morning Herald TV critic called it "the event of the week" praising the "strong performances from" Michell, White and Devlin and the "superbly photographed outback scenery. The photography ran rings around most routine Hollywood westerns. In colour, it would be a masterpiece." He did say "I felt that author Alan Poolman over-wrote at times. But this is small stuff, weighed alongside the tremendous dramatic impact of the play as a whole".[11]

The Bulletin called it "awful... Save us from expatriate playwrights such as Alan Poolman, who marry some childish sense of what is Australian to a more thorough idea of how to write bad drama" in which Michell "was less than unimpressive, matched only by Alan White... What possessed BBC-TV and ABC TV to film it? Well, television people have some weird ideas about the Outback, there’s no other explanation. Let’s hope the British viewers took it all at face value—as only a bad joke."[12]

References
  1. "Leisure TV Drama Music Art BGooks Radio The Arts". The Canberra Times. 40 (11, 377). Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 28 January 1966. p. 13. Retrieved 23 February 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. "Australian play for UK". The Canberra Times. 40 (11, 361). Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 11 January 1966. p. 9. Retrieved 23 February 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. "Outback drama has biblical theme". The Canberra Times. [?] (11, 665). Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 17 April 1967. p. 15. Retrieved 23 February 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. Vagg, Stephen (18 February 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  5. "Kain | AustLit: Discover Australian Stories". www.austlit.edu.au. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  6. "Desert play praised". The Canberra Times. 41 (11, 668). Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 20 April 1967. p. 5. Retrieved 23 February 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. "Theatre 625", Wikipedia, 11 October 2019, retrieved 24 January 2020
  8. "TVBrain | Kaleidoscope | Lost shows | TV Archive | TV History". www.tvbrain.info. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  9. "Kain (1967)". BFI. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  10. "ABC and BBC in joint venture". The Age. 3 March 1966. p. 14.
  11. "Kain: worth the money". Sydney Morning Herald. 23 April 1967. p. 94.
  12. Roberts, Frank (29 April 1967). "Television Fair dinkum". The Bulletin. p. 38.


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