Murder in the Silo explained

Murder in the Silo
Format:drama play
Runtime:30 mins[1]
Start Time:8pm
End Time:8.30pm
Country:Australia
Language:English
Home Station:2BL
Syndicates:ABC
First Aired:3 February 1937

Murder in the Silo is a 1937 radio drama by Edmund Barclay. It was described as a psychological melodrama and was very popular at a time when Australian set radio dramas were relatively rare.[2] [3] Leslie Rees called it "one of the most effective of our shorter radio plays."[4]

Barclay's script was published in a collection of one-act plays in 1937, Best Australian One-Act Plays.[5]

The play was produced by BBC radio in 1938.

The play was produced again in Australia in 1939, 1941, 1942, 1945 and 1953. (It was usually presented on a double bill with another short play.)

Reception

The Bulletin called it "more than ordinarily good. It is a mystery-thriller, making the usual bald bid for the listener’s curiosity and subsequent undisguised attack on his feelings, but it also gives what appears to be an authentic glimpse of certain Australian types and an aspect of Australian rural life hitherto unportrayed."

Wireless Weekly called it "a well-constructed melodrama with an unusual setting."

The play's use of hearing the lead character's thoughts in the style of Eugene O'Neill was praised by Max Afford.

Premise

An old swagman explains why it is bad to ride in a wheat truck. A man operates the machines of a wheat- silo. A mate asks him for a job. The operator takes him up to the top and pushes him into the silo because of a woman. The narrator passes by and takes the dead man's swag. He meets the killer on a train. The sign of a man among the wheat and his victim’s swag, sends the murderer overboard with a hideous shriek.

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Radio Station Programmes . . 30,916 . New South Wales, Australia . 3 February 1937 . 30 January 2024 . 8 . National Library of Australia.
  2. Marion Consandine, 'Barclay, Edmund Piers (Teddy) (1898–1961)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/barclay-edmund-piers-teddy-9425/text16569, published first in hardcopy 1993, accessed online 24 August 2023.
  3. News: "THE CRIME WITH 200,000 WITNESSES" . . LXVII . 4331 . New South Wales, Australia . 6 May 1937 . 24 August 2023 . 16 . National Library of Australia.
  4. Book: Rees, Leslie. 100. Towards an Australian Drmaa. 1953.
  5. News: Australian Drama . . 1798 . New South Wales, Australia . 12 September 1937 . 24 August 2023 . 12 (MAGAZINE) . National Library of Australia.