Alan Seymour
Alan Seymour OAM | |
---|---|
Born | Fremantle, Western Australia | 6 June 1927
Died | 23 March 2015 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | (aged 87)
Nationality | Australian |
Notable work | The One Day of the Year |
Partner | Ron Baddeley (1949–2003) |
Alan Seymour
Career
Seymour was born in Fremantle, Western Australia.[3] His father was killed in a wharf accident when Alan was nine, and his mother, a Cockney from London, died a few months later.[4] After that he was brought up by his sister May and her husband, Alfred Chester Cruthers. He was educated at Perth Modern School, leaving at 15 after failing to complete the Junior Certificate. He found work as a radio announcer in a commercial radio station 6PM. During his two years there he wrote a number of short radio plays that were broadcast live. In 1945 he moved to Sydney, New South Wales, where he worked as an advertising copy-writer with 2UE.[2]
He returned to Perth after the war where he worked as a free-lance writer for ABC Radio. Seymour became ABC Radio's film critic. He joined a commercial radio station 6KY as an announcer and copy-writer and after six months was offered an announcing post at the ABC. In 1949, he met Ron Baddeley, an RAAF veteran, and the two would become life partners.[4]
In November 1949, Seymour returned to Sydney where he became an educational and freelance drama writer for ABC Radio and later television. From 1953 to 1957 he was theatrical director for the Sydney Opera Group. His first play, Swamp Creatures, premièred by the Canberra Repertory Society, was a finalist in the London Observer play competition in 1957.[2]
Seymour left Australia in 1961 and worked in London as a television writer, producer and commissioning editor with the BBC, and as a theatre critic for The London Magazine.[2] In 1965 his play Stockbrokers are Smashing But Bankers Are Better was withdrawn from broadcast on ITV in 1965 due to concerns over its sexual content.[5]
From 1966 to 1971 he lived in
Seymour and Baddeley returned to Australia in 1995 and lived in
The One Day of the Year
His best-known play, The One Day of the Year, was written in 1958 for an amateur playwriting competition, inspired by an article in the University of Sydney newspaper Honi Soit lambasting Anzac Day.[3]
The play met with huge controversy on its release. Initially it was rejected by the
Select writings
- Tomorrow's Child (1957) – TV play
- The Lark(1959) – TV play
- One Bright Day(1959) – TV play
- The Life and Death of King Richard II (1960) – TV play
- Lean Liberty (1961)
- Donny Johnson (1961)
- The Runner(1962) – TV play
- Auto Stop (1965) - TV play
- The Trial and Torture of Sir John Rampayne (1965) - TV play
- Winter Passion (1962) - radio play
- The Christopher Marlowe Murder Mystery
- And It Wasn't Just the Feathers
- Stockbrokers Are Smashing: But Bankers Are Better
- Break in the Music(1966) - stage play
- The Glass Virgin (1995) – television screenplay
References
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
- ^ a b c d e Seymour, Alan (9 September 1996). "Papers of Alan Seymour (1927– )". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
- ^ a b c d e Jinman, Richard (2 April 2003). "Stirring struggle endures to this Day". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
- ^ a b c d e Marc McEvoy, obituary: "The one day of the year became a defining moment in writer's life". The Age, 30 March 2015, p. 34
- ^ Ramsden Greig, ‘TV play is dropped – unsuitable decision’, Evening Standard, 9 December 1965, p. 19.
- ^ It's an Honour Archived 24 September 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 8 June 2016
- ^ Teacher Notes – The One Day of the Year