ANZAC DAY 2020
“Well, you know what day this is? This day used to mean someth’n’ once…If it wasn’t for men like my old man this country’d never bin heard of. They put Australia on the map they did, the ANZACs did. An’ bloody died doin’ it.”
What?
A reading of Alan Seymour’s The One Day of the Year via Zoom to commemorate ANZAC Day, Australia’s equivalent of Remembrance Sunday.
Where and when?
The reading will be available to watch in the UK on 25 April at 7.30pm and will also be available following this, until 31 May 2020.
How?
Watch here via the Australian High Commission’s Facebook page.
About
Trish Wadley Productions today announces a reading of Alan Seymour’s The One Day of the Year via Zoom to commemorate ANZAC Day, Australia’s equivalent of Remembrance Sunday. The reading will be available to watch in the UK on 25 April at 7.30pm and will also be available following this, until 31 May 2020. Watch here. The reading, presented by best selling Australian-British author Kathy Lette, reunites director Wayne Harrison and Mark Little (Alf) and Paul Haley (Wacka) from the acclaimed 2015 production at Finborough Theatre. They are joined by Kerry Fox (Dot), Daniel Monks (Hughie) and Celeste Dodwell (Jan ). Is ANZAC Day just an excuse for “one long grog-up” or is it a day when Australians reflect on those who have paid the ultimate price? For war veterans like Alf and his friend Wacka, ANZAC Day is an opportunity to commemorate history and the forging of Australia’s national identity. For Alf’s son Hughie, reacting against everything his father stands for, ANZAC Day is a just an out-of-date nationalist nostalgia fest.
“ I wanted to produce this reading of the full play to commemorate ANZAC Day and to highlight and honour the incredible pool of Australian and New Zealand creative talent based in the UK. I am extremely grateful to the Australian High Commission in London for their support.”
Trish Wadley
With thanks to the Australian High Commissioner
With the annual public ANZAC Day 2020 services cancelled due to the COVID-19 situation, this reading of the full play will be presented as part of the Australian High Commission’s virtual ANZAC Day programme and has been made possible through the support of The Australian High Commission and HE the Hon. George Brandis QC, Australian High Commissioner to the UK.
About the playwright
Playwright Alan Seymour (1927 – 2015) was born in Fremantle, Western Australia. Known as a playwright, novelist, television writer and producer, and theatre critic, his plays include Swamp Creatures, The Gaiety of Nations, A Break in the Music, The Pope and the Pill, The Shattering and The Float. He also wrote novels including The Coming Self-Destruction of the United States and spent time working for the BBC for which he wrote adaptations of L.P. Hartley’s Eustace and Hilda, Antonia White’s Frost in May and John Masefield’s The Box of Delights.
About the director
Director Wayne Harrison is a former Artistic Director of Sydney Theatre Company, as well as Creative Director of Sydney’s New Year’s Eve celebration, the director of the Closing Ceremony for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, and co-producer of Gumboots, Tap Dogs, Slava’s Snowshow and Fosse for Back Row Productions and Clear Channel Entertainment. Recent international theatre includes Letter to Larry (Theatre Nesle, Paris), For Crying Out Loud (The Grand Theatre, Ontario), Human Nature -The Motown Show (The Venetian, Las Vegas), The Choir of Man (Darwin Festival), RU4Me (Australian tour), Celebrity Autobiography and Love, Loss, and What I Wore (Sydney Opera House and Ross Mollison International) and Sunday in the Park with George (NIDA, Sydney). He is Head of Creation for Spiegelworld International for which he has directed Absinthe, Desir, Empire (all in New York City), Vegas Nocturne (Las Vegas) and Absinthe (Miami and Las Vegas). His 2015 projects include Don Reid’s Young and Jackson (45 Downstairs, Melbourne), Justin Fleming’s Shellshock (Riverside Theatres, Parramatta) and Donald Macdonald’s Letter to Larry (Jermyn Street Theatre, London).
About Trish Wadley Productions
Trish Wadley has worked at the Bush Theatre and Tricycle Theatre and is an independent producer creating innovative productions in theatres and site specific locations both on and off the West End.
- The Wider Earth by David Morton (The Natural History Museum
- Olivier nomination for Best Entertainment & Family); The Red Lion by Patrick Marber (Trafalgar Studios – Olivier nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate theatre), , Burning Bridges (Theatre503). Co-producer: My Night With Reg (Apollo Theatre – Olivier nomination for Best Revival).
- For Defibrillator, as Executive Producer: A Lie Of The Mind (Southwark Playhouse), Speech & Debate (Trafalgar Studios), The Hotel Plays (Grange Hotel and Langham, London), Hard
- Feelings and The One Day of the Year (Finborough Theatre), The Armour (Langham, London) and Insignificance (Langham Place, New York).
- Trish is a member of SOLT and UK Theatre and a Stage One Bursary recipient. She is a trustee of The Britain Australia Society and a founder of The Australian & New Zealand Festival of Literature & Arts (FANZA).
For further information, please contact: Trish Wadley on 07740074456 or [email protected] | www.trishwadleyproductions.com