A brief synopsis and details of plays by Daryl Peebles as at 3 March 2013
One Act Monologues
CHINKS IN THE CHALICE
Although she grew up in a secure, wealthy and loving Catholic family, Theresa now lives on the edge of society and at the edge of sanity. This once devoutly religious young woman now displays homicidal and suicidal tendencies as her existence oscillates between the hopelessness of her present and the horrors of her past. This disturbing play explores the emerging contemporary societal problem of the adult manifestations of child abuse by people in positions of authority.
Cast: One female (up to 25 yo)
Running Time: Approx 15 minutes
Awards: Best Actress (Natasha Prendergast-Chapman)
Tasmanian Drama Festival, Deloraine 1993.
Performances: Tasmanian Drama Festival, Deloraine 1993
Telling Tales Tasmanian Tour, August 1998 (Andrea Moody)
MARCHING FOR MARCO
Marching for Marco looks at the concept of acceptance. Marco is the son of post-war European immigrants and is caught between the traditional culture of his parents and that of his country, Australia. Marco dreams of representing Australia in sport or playing in a VFL (now AFL) Grand Final.
His opportunity to represent Australia does not come through sport however, but through Australia's involvement in the Vietnam war.
As a returned veteran of that unfortunate experience, Marco again faces his old dilemma, acceptance.
Cast: One male, (three characters are played in this monologue.
Marco as a lad and a youth, and Marco’s ageing father.
Acting versatility, rather than age, is the predominant casting consideration.)
Running Time: Approx 25 minutes
Awards: Best Production, (Theatrix)
Tasmanian Drama Festival, Deloraine 1993
Best Tasmanian Actor (John Xintavelonis), and
Best Tasmanian Playwright (Daryl Peebles)
Variety Club Awards, Tasmania Day 1993
Performances: 1993 Theatrix
1994 As part of Over the Fence is Out
1995 Lunatic Fringe
1996 Tasmanian Touring Theatre Company
(performances at the Adelaide Fringe
Festival and Melbourne’s Antipodes Festival)
1998 Telling Tales Tasmanian Tour, August 1998
RAMBONE AND ROMANCE
Robert and Brenda have been separated for a couple of years leaving Robert living a lonely, single life with his dog Rambone. The initial disagreement between Robert and Brenda finished with an exchange of vitriolic letters, which Robert reads and re-reads with Rambone as his confidant.
Robert's power comes from the fact that Brenda's final letter remains unopened. He feels that in leaving it unread for two years, he has denied her the opportunity for final abuse.
On the second anniversary of their separation, Robert feels psychologically strong enough to open and read the final letter ........
Cast: One male 25+
Running Time: Approx. 18 minutes
Awards: Best Actor (Daryl Peebles)
Tasmanian Drama Festival, Deloraine 1992
Performances: Tasmanian Drama Festival, Deloraine October 1992
Eagle Hawk Players, Tasmania July 2009
THIS OLD MAN
This Old Man is the fourth in a series of one-act monologues. It looks at the world through the fading eyes of an elderly person, partially reliving the old times through reminisces and partially fearing and trying to rationalise the future. After its debut at the Deloraine Drama Festival, the adjudicator wrote, "An effective piece of writing which is both humorous and poignant. Well performed and well directed."
Cast: 1 male, preferably elderly.
Running Time: Approx. 20 minutes
Performances Tasmanian Drama Festival,
Old Nick Season of One Act Plays,
University Studio Theatre
Telling Tales Tasmanian Tour,
August 1998 (Peter Middleton)
One Act Plays
GROWING DOWN
Kathy and Stephen have just returned from their daughter's wedding to their comfortable middle class existence.
The wedding stimulates reminiscences of their own wedding and reflections of their own past. Kathy is keen to retain or recapture some of the excitement their youth; growing up in the sixties. Stephen however, appears to be content with his career and middle class conservative life style which has evolved over the past thirty years of their lives. But all that can change, and does so with Kathy using a couple of ‘change agents’ from their past.
Cast: One female, one male, early to mid forties.
Running time: Approx 30 minutes
Performances: Tasmanian Drama Festival
One-Act Play Season Backspace Theatre, Hobart
UP AND AWAY
Sandra and Doug are on their honeymoon. They are mid-journey when they find themselves stranded by an airline industrial dispute.
Also affected by this dispute are Arthur and Simone who theoretically are going to a conference although Arthur is gearing up for a ‘dirty weekend’.
The dispute escalates and the airport public address system announcements act like a Greek chorus to advance the plot. As the industrial crisis worsens so to do the relationships between the characters.
The play has as its emotional thread, an exploration of attitudes and values. It uses the country virtues of the newly wed Doug to contrast with the worldliness of the much older and oft-married car salesman, Arthur.
Cast: Two females, early to mid-twenties
Two males, one mid-twenties, the other older (up to 50.)
Running time: Approx 25 minutes
Performances: Tasmanian Drama Festival
One Act Play Festival, Playhouse Theatre, Hobart.
Newman (Western Australia) Theatre Group
Whitsunday Intimate Theatre Society, Airlie Beach,
Queensland.
Awards: Best Actress (Lyn Dean)
Tasmanian Drama Festival, Deloraine 1991
RECONCILIATION
Vicki and Neville have been married for 12 years. Vicki was convinced that Neville was unfaithful, less-than-honest, a slob, a yob and otherwise undesirable. But after one incredible jolt to the foundation of their marriage, when Vicki found Nev in bed with another woman, she has finally left him. This has come as a bit of a shock for poor old Nev who thought he had Vicki around his little finger...... like all the other women in his life.
Nev’s one last desperate effort to win Vicki back, is tonight. He has chosen a romantic candle-lit dinner for two as the perfect vehicle.
After all, he is still the charming old Nev! So how could she refuse??
Cast: Two females, one about twenty, the other mid-thirties.
Two males, one mid-thirties to mid-forties, the other up to
fifty-ish.
Running time: Approx 25 minutes.
Performances: Playhouse Theatre, Hobart
Tasmanian Drama Festival, Deloraine
Awards: Best Comedy, (Old Nick Company)
Tasmanian Drama Festival, Deloraine 1995, and
Best Actor (Andrew Colrain),
Tasmanian Drama Festival, Deloraine 1995
CARNIVAL MAN
Life is full of people who are running away from something. In so doing, they often collide with other people hurtling toward the very same thing from which they are escaping. Marriage is a classic example!
Carnival Man is the story of a young woman’s dream of becoming a circus performer and the attempts by her hero, a past master of the high-wire, to dissuade her.
Cast: One female around twenty
One male, late fifties.
Running time: Approx 25 minutes
Performances: Writers Fringe Festival, Peacock Theatre, Hobart 1996
Tasmanian Drama Festival, Deloraine 1996
Backspace Theatre, November 1996
Awards: Best Original Script,
Tasmanian Drama Festival, Deloraine 1996
KEEPER OF THE LIGHT
People need other people in a variety of circumstances. Keeper of the Light tells of the interdependency of a fisherman and a lighthouse keeper and the consequences of not being there when needed.
The play includes poetic monologues.
Cast: Two males, middle-aged.
Running time: 20 minutes approximately
Performances: Tasmanian Drama Festival, Deloraine, 1996
Backspace Theatre, November 1996
Telling Tales Tasmanian Tour, August 1998
(Peter Miller / Graham Lake)
Awards: Best Dramatic Ensemble(Peter Miller / Graham Lake)
Tasmanian Drama Festival, Deloraine, 1996
OUI THREE
The action takes place in the Ladies toilet during an ambassadorial reception in an up-market reception-centre or hotel located in Australia, probably Canberra.
A situation arises which requires leadership and resolve, but not necessarily with the eventual outcomes of this scenario.
Cast: Three females, preferably in their 20’s and a brief appearance of a male.
Running time: 20 minutes approximately
Performances: Tasmanian Drama Festival, Deloraine, 1997
Backspace Theatre, November 1997
Awards: Best Dramatic Ensemble (Lucy Taylor, Cassie le Fevre and Brigid Lohrey) ~ Tasmanian Drama Festival, Deloraine, 1997
BETHANY
Bethany is set in 1830 in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania). It is the story of a young woman transported from England for a menial crime and now in the service of exploitative land-owners in the new colony. The play looks at the way three different women cope (or do not cope) with the abuses in their lives.
Cast: Three females, two around twenty years old, the third around forty.
Running time: 30 minutes approximately.
Performances: Tasmanian Drama Festival, Deloraine, 2000
University of Tasmania, September 2010.
Awards: Best Dramatic Ensemble (Andrea Moody, Judith Smee and Rebecca Thompson), Best Actress in a supporting role (Judith Smee) and Best Original Play.
Full-Length Plays
HOT UNDER THE COLLAR
The church council are meeting in the vicarage of the small parish of Pewkesbury in rural Australia. The previous parson, Rev. Phillips, has passed away in recent weeks. His widow has relocated to a retirement village. Together, they had ministered their flock in this district for forty years.
The parish council, faced with finding a new vicar, have had one response to their many “calls”. That is from Rev. Nigel Rose. But the council are unsure as to his suitability.
He is city-bred, only twenty-eight years old and, heaven forbid, still single! What can this mean?
Cast: Two females, one mid-twenties, the other fifty-ish
Four males, one late twenties, the others late forties onwards.
Running time: Approx 90 minutes
Performances: Backspace Theatre, (Larrikan Productions) 1993
Eagle Hawk Players, Tasmania August 2008
SHENANIGAN’S WAKE
Shenanigan's Wake is written as a pub-theatre/theatre-restaurant production. Like Jack Hibberd's Dimboola, it examines an Australian celebration; this one imported with the masses of Irish immigrants who have been gravitating to these shores since the First Fleet. That celebration is, of course, the wake.
Seamus Shenanigan has recently died, the most likely cause being liver failure. It was his wish that "his mates from the boozer" should send him on his way in a manner that befitted his life. This wake is a most suitable send off. His boozer mates unfortunately are the audience; the paying public! If only they knew!!!
Cast: Three females, one early to mid twenties, the others mid forty+
Three males, any age. Preferably one mid forties+
(Casting assumes one male plays four characters.
This can be altered if director wishes)
Running time: Three acts of approx 25 minutes each geared to having a three course meal served in breaks.
Performances: Hip Pocket Productions (Saloon Bar, Catch-A-Rising-Star Restaurant, and Port Huon Holiday Village, Tasmania)
Razzle Dazzle Productions (New Sydney Hotel, Ferntree Tavern, Blue Waters Resort, Orford, Tasmania)
Corc Theatre Inc. North Clayton, Victoria.
Fandango Players Footscray, Victoria
Directions Theatre Company The Spectacle Theatre Restaurant Hobart Tasmania
MLOC (Mordialloc Light Opera Company) Black Rock, Victoria
Newman Amateur Dramatic Society Newman, Western Australia.
Big River Festival of Arts Grafton, NSW
National Celtic Folk Festival Thunderbox Theatre Geelong
Tuxedo Junction Theatre Restaurant Darwin, NT
MLOC (Mordialloc Light Opera Company) Black Rock, Victoria (second season December 1998)
Werribee Theatre Company, Werribee, Victoria
Sale Theatre Company Sale, Victoria
Grafton (second season 2000)
Cathouse Players Inc Craigieburn, Victoria.
Ararat Players Ararat, Victoria
Warrnambool Community Group Warrnambool, Victoria.
Razzle Dazzle (March to November 2003) Castle Bar and Restaurant, Lenah Valley, Tasmania.
Portland Theatre Group, Portland, Victoria June 2005
Coonabarabran Dramatic Society Coonabarabran, NSW November 2005
Variety Theatre, Ashburton, Nelson, New Zealand May / June 2006
Kapas Victoria May / June 2006
Emerald Theatre Queensland September 2006
Sunshine Community Theatre Victoria April 2007
Bundaberg Theatre Company Queensland (scheduled) May 2007
BARBECUE
Barbecue is a play about many things including the Australian cultural ritual, the ‘barby’. It is intended to be performed in a space where audience members can feel they are an integral part of the event.
Sausages (or other inexpensive goodies) are cooked on a gas or electric barbecue throughout the play. These are intended for audience and performer consumption, probably served with such “up-market” side dishes as bread and tomato sauce or mustard.
A story line centres on a family who unexpectedly find themselves financially well off, and move from their working-class suburb to a ‘ritzy’ suburb.
Implications of a class-based society in Australia and societal pressure for change and conformity are explored in a mostly humorous way.
The concept need not be restricted to simply providing the audience with a sausage. A low-cost theatre-restaurant show could be staged with the audience being fed a range of salads to go with barbecued delicacies.
This would be served buffet-style on the set, between acts.
Desserts and coffees could be served in the same way after the show with “in-character” mingling by cast and crew.
As is traditional at an Aussie barbecue, the audience may be encouraged to have a couple of drinks during the performance .... in moderation of course!!
Cast: Five males 1 x early to mid-forties.
2 x early to mid-twenties
1 x age is immaterial but probably late twenties onwards.
1 x probably late fifties
Five females 1 x late thirties
3 x late teens to early twenties
1 x this character is early to mid-fifties but as she would fit into the “mutton dressed as lamb” category, she could be played by a woman of any mature age
Running time: Approximately 100 minutes
Performances: Old Nick Company, Peacock Theatre, Hobart
Fandango Players, Footscray, Victoria.
Big River Festival of Arts, Grafton, NSW
Werribee Theatre Company, Werribee, Victoria
The Fabulous Nobodys, Bayswater, Victoria (May 2000)
Trinity College, Adelaide, (November 2001)
Year Nine, Pembroke School, South Australia (June 2004) (mskinner@pembroke.sa.edu.au)
Williams Repertory Company (December 2006) Western Australia
Ulverstone Repertory Theatre Company Tasmania (June 2006) ?
Beacon Theatre Western Australia (May 2007)
Hobart Repertory Theatre Society (7 – 22 August 2009) Tasmania
Glasshouse Entertainment Society (August 2009) Glasshouse Mountains Queensland
Boilerhouse Theatre Company (May 2010) Sunbury, Victoria. (Director Mr Tony Rain)
DEADSET
Deadset is a black comedy looking at the 1990 phenomenon of economic rationalisation and the privatisation of many traditional Government services.
The cemetery and crematorium of the mythical state or city in which Deadset is placed, is the last bastion of public service. Attempts by an American “funeral facilitation service” to take the operation over, are fought by an unlikely crew of heroes whose lives have, until now, revolved around the tasteful disposal of human remains. They are forced into some desperate and unashamedly unlikely tactics, which are not befitting of their current careers.
But then again, those careers, like their traditional customers, are almost dead anyway!!
Cast: Three males One x mid-fifties.
Two x early to mid-thirties.
Two females One x mid-forties
One x early to mid-twenties
Running time: Approximately 80 minutes
Performances: (reading only)
**********
Musical
AUSSIE RULES ~ THE MUSICAL
With music and arrangements written by Tasmanian musician Fran Armstrong and the book and lyrics by Daryl Peebles, Aussie Rules ~ The Musical is attracting a lot of attention in the broader Australian theatre community.
Aussie Rules ~ The Musical isn’t about putting football players in tutus and having a bit of a giggle. It is a new, fun-filled comedy with clever songs, dances and hilarious situations. It also has a serious side, examining the effects of the urbanisation of Australia with country towns losing much of the traditional infrastructure and recognising the valuable role sporting and service clubs play in uniting communities.
But Aussie Rules ~ The Musical never loses its emphasis on fun, music, dance and most of all …hope!
Aussie Rules ~ The Musical was produced for its premiere season in August 2000 by Hobart’s Old Nick Theatre Company. The box office return and public reaction surpassed expectations. It is currently under consideration for a professional Victorian production.
Cast: Eight males (two x mid forties, one thirtyish and five x late-teens, early twenties)
Six females (one x mid-forties and five late teens or early to mid-twenties)
Orchestra: Aussie Rules ~ The Musical is scored for six instruments; keyboards, guitar, bass, drums, cello and saxophone/clarinet.
Running time: Approximately 100 minutes
Performances: Old Nick Theatre Company, Peacock Theatre Hobart August / September 2000
Huon Valley Theatre Company November / December 2003
Williams Repertory Company
Western Australia November 2006
