| The Torrents | |
| Premiere: | 1957 |
| Orig Lang: | English |
| Genre: | comedy |
The Torrents is a 1955 Australian play by Oriel Gray, set in the late 19th century, about the arrival of a female journalist in an all-male newspaper office, and an attempt to develop irrigation-based agriculture in a former gold mining town.
In 1955 it was voted best play that year by the Playwrights' Advisory Board, alongside Ray Lawler's Summer of the Seventeenth Doll,[1] [2] winning a prize of £100 for its author.[3] This has been called "one of the great “compare and contrast” moments in the history of female Australian playwriting."[4]
The play is set in the second half of the 19th century,[2] [3] in the newspaper office of a country town[2] [3] built around gold-mining.[2] The gold is running out,[2] and a young engineer suggests developing agriculture, supported by irrigation, as an alternative.[2] A new recruit to the newspaper, one J.G. Milthorpe, arrives – and turns out to be a woman named Jenny. The play explores tensions between the all-male workforce of the newspaper and the new female reporter; between those who want to see mining continue and those who support agriculture; and the different stances of the newspaper editor and his son.[2]
The Torrents had its stage premiere in 1957 at the New Theatre, Stow Hall, Adelaide,[5] [6] produced by Mary Miller, one of the founders of that theatre.[7] It was performed in Melbourne the following year, at the New Theatre,[2] [8] and in Sydney in 1962 at Norman McVicker's Pocket Playhouse in Sydenham.[9] [10] The cast included John Cooper, Beverley Harte and Lionel Mann, and it was produced by Robert Findlay.[10]
Its next stage productions were not until 1995 and 1996. A reading of the play was performed at the Victorian Arts Centre in March 1995.[2] [11] In 1996, the State Theatre Company of South Australia dedicated its program at The Playhouse theatre to works by Australian authors, including some which had been neglected.[2] [12] Its production of The Torrents was directed by Marion Potts, with set design by Mary Moore.[8] [13] Paula Arundell played Jenny, and John Adam played the son.[8] [13]
It was adapted into a one-hour radio play by Joy Hollyer for the ABC in 1956.[14] [15] [16] Three performances were broadcast, one in March 1956, with Beverley Dunn as J.G. Milford,[17] another in November 1956, with Margo Lee as J.G. Milford, Kevin Brennan as the editor, Ben Gabriel as the son, and Keith Buckley as the young engineer.[18] and the third in December 1956, in which Gwen Clarke played Jenny Milford, and Donald McTaggart played the son; also in the cast was Rodney Hall.[19]
Another production aired in 1966, with Nonie Stewart and John Nash in major roles.[20]
The play was adapted for Australian TV in 1969.[21] Filmink said this adaptation "seemed forgotten in newspaper reports about the recent STC/Black Swan revival of that play."[4]
It was also adapted into the musical A Bit o' Petticoat.[22]
The Torrents was not published until 1988,[23] when Penguin released it as part of their Australian playhouse series, and it was also included in Dale Spender's The Penguin Anthology of Australian Women's Writing.[2] [24] It was then re-issued by Currency Press in 1996 and 2016.