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Series 5: Dramatic works, c.1962-1996
Subseries 5.1: The ham funeral

First written by White as a stage play in 1947. Further developed and first produced in 1961.

 

Folder 1 Typescript, c.1962
Red quarto springback folder, iii + 104pp clean carbon copy typescript on onionskin paper (some pages are upside-down): 'Four plays by Patrick White'. Although the contents list includes The season at Sarsaparilla, A cheery soul and Night on Bald Mountain, the binder contains only the script for The ham funeral. The collection of plays is dedicated to Frederick Glover, a Grafton bank manager, who encouraged White to re-work the play after it had failed to be staged for more than ten years.
Folder 2 Correspondence, programs and photographs, 1961-1963, 1989-1991
Contents include: Jim Waites' 'birthday card' to Manoly Lascaris, made up of 2 cuttings of 1963 reviews of The season at Sarsaparilla; a 1989 Sydney Theatre Company (STC) Schoolsday program for The ham funeral with a typescript letter from Theresa Willsteed (Assistant to the Director); The ham funeral programs and 3 still photographs, 2 from the 1961 Adelaide University Theatre Guild production, and another by Robert McFarlane inscribed 'To Mr White from Mrs White with a big punch'; various review clippings; a letter from May-Brit Akerholt, 24 October [1989], regarding program material (Ackerholt, STC dramaturg and NIDA lecturer, had written a study of White's plays in the Australian playwright's monograph series published by Rodopi (Amsterdam) the previous year).
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