The Mystery of The Lawsons
John Thomson uncovers a littleknown chapter in Australia’s theatrical history Working my way through the collection of J.C. Williamson production photographs held in the National Library’s Pictures Collection, I came across 13 photographs labelled ‘J.C. Williamson Theatres Ltd. presents Gwen Meredith’s The Lawsons. Record breaking radio serial now a stage play’. There was nothing else to indicate the date of the production or the names of its cast. To be able to catalogue the photographs, I needed to find these details. But there the mystery began. The Lawsons was an immensely popular ABC radio serial written by Gwen Meredith which ran for 1299 episodes from 1 February 1944 to 5 February 1949. The Lawson family, living on their property ‘Wongalee’, were ordinary Australians living ordinary lives. Their battle to survive and their concerns about their sons who were away at war, struck a familiar chord with thousands of Australians. When the final episode of the serial was announced, the Sydney Morning Herald remarked: ‘to many people throughout the Commonwealth this will be almost a national day of mourning. The complicated affairs of the Lawson family, their friends and their enemies have made the serial the most popular in the history of Australian radio’.
After The Lawsons finished, Meredith wrote the even more popular serial Blue Hills, which ran for 5795 episodes from 1949 until 1976. She also wrote a novel called The Lawsons, published in 1948, and three novels based on Blue Hills. Earlier in her career she had written several stage plays which had productions at the Independent Theatre in Sydney, and in Brisbane. Given the fame of The Lawsons, I assumed that the stage version would be well documented. This proved not to be the case and led to a great deal of detective work to piece together its history. To identify photographs from the J.C. Williamson Collection, the first step was to check for programs in the Library’s PROMPT Collection, but there are none. Gwen Meredith’s papers, held in the Library’s Manuscript Collection, include a large number of clippings and other information about the radio serial, but nothing about the stage version. An interview with Meredith in the Library’s Oral History Collection also does not mention the stage version. But in the J.C. Williamson Collection, held in the Manuscript Collection, I found two typescripts of the play. One of the scripts had pencil markings indicating it had been used for rehearsals. The other script, which appeared to be the original, contained a clue. Tucked in the back was a sheet of pink paper, dated ‘15/12 /49’, with a typed list of venues to be used.
The standard published works on Australian theatre history yielded only one reference, but it revealed a possible reason for the lack of information. In his book The Making of Australian Drama, Leslie Rees says there was a ‘limply organized country tour … failing badly because of inadequate prior thinking and arrangement’. While this confirmed that a production had taken place, the words ‘country tour’ were not very helpful—which part of the country and when? Visiting the Performing Arts Collection at the Arts Centre, Melbourne, I found an important piece of evidence—a small fourpage program for the stage production. Although this only contained a cast list and photographs of the cast (there were no dates or venues), it proved that J.C. Williamson Theatres had indeed mounted a production. On the front of the programme was another clue, a handwritten annotation, ‘Sydney 8/1/50’. But no references to a production were found in the Index to the Sydney Morning Herald for January 1950. A later discovery was the J.C. Williamson publicity scrapbooks held in the State Library of New South Wales. Although they are very fragile and are undergoing conservation work, I was allowed to go through them, but unfortunately there was no material for the period around January to February 1950. And that seemed to be the end of the line. There were no more leads to follow, that is until I received a phone call from the State Library of New South Wales. A program had been found with a vital clue: an annotation on the front read ‘opened Bathurst February 1950’. A hasty check of Bathurst’s newspaper, the Western Times, solved part of the mystery. The gala world premiere of The Lawsons opened at the Masonic Hall, Bathurst on Saturday 8 January 1950.
In the days preceding the opening, the Western Times contained several articles detailing the preparations. Robert Sturgess, touring manager for J.C. Williamson, reported that there was ‘feverish activity’ at the Theatre Royal in Sydney where rehearsals were being held. He made the further assurance ‘that the full resources of J.C. Williamson Theatres Ltd. are being utilised to make The Lawsons the theatrical event of the year’. He hoped that ‘local florists will be flooded with orders for corsages and that dry cleaners will be kept equally busy removing the moths from evening dress suits’. The day before the premiere it was reported that ‘among the distinguished audience … will be Miss Gwen Meredith, the fabulously popular Australian authoress’. The arrival of the company on the Central West Express at 1.22 pm on the day before the premiere was also described. As they stepped off the train they were given a musical welcome played by the city carillonist. After a hurried lunch they were rushed to 2BS radio station for recorded interviews and then toured the factories of Gordon Edgell & Sons and California Productions to inspect the manufacturing processes. They were then allowed to unpack. The Western Times reported that the‘festive atmosphere which prevails at gala premieres in big cities’ was reproduced for the opening. ‘Many spectators lined the footpath outside the Masonic Hall as first nighters arrived to the music of the Bathurst Pipe Band which played outside the entrance before the play began. Coloured illuminations heightened the effect at the entrance.’
In an extensive review of the first performance, The Western Times commented favourably on all the performances and noted that the teamwork was ‘splendid’ and ‘the situations succeed remarkably well in capturing the country atmosphere and the simple, dry humour’. The audience was ‘warmly appreciative’. None of the radio cast was in the stage production, but it was directed by Vivian Edwards who had played the head of the Lawson family, John Lawson. The cast of 11 included a young Ed Devereaux playing Ted Lawson. Although his name does not appear in the program, the publicity mentions that the set was designed and executed by the noted Australian artist William Constable. The Lawsons had three further performances in Bathurst. But what happened then? The mention of the cast arriving in Bathurst on the Central West Express provided a valuable clue. In the Library’s collection of printed ephemera, I found a timetable and a route map for the train. From Bathurst one train went on to Orange, Wellington and Dubbo, another to Molong and Parkes. Using this as a guide I was able to check local newspapers to trace the tour. Advertisements and publicity (including some of the photographs now in the Library’s collection) appeared in all the newspapers. After Bathurst the next stop was for two performances at the Monarch Theatre in Wellington on Saturday 4 February and Monday 6 February. The Wellington Times was in no doubt about the production’s success when it wrote that it was ‘exquisitely presented by a cast of stage and radio favourites where acting is an untold pleasure to watch’. Curiously, I can find no evidence that the play was performed in Orange, despite the fact that it was the next train stop after Bathurst. During the next week the company gave two performances each in Dubbo, Parkes and Forbes. And there the trail goes cold. I have been unable to trace any further performances. I recently wrote to Gwen Meredith but she replied saying that apart from attending one rehearsal and the opening performance, she had little to do with the stage production and could add no further details.
In publicity, much was made of ‘a new sphere of J.C. Williamson policy in bringing first-class city entertainment to the discriminating residents of the large and important country centres’. One of the problems faced by Williamson was the lack of suitable venues. Pamela Bygrave, an English actress playing Sue Lawson, expressed this concern in an interview with the Parkes Champion Post: ‘Parkes will probably miss a lot of Australia’s theatrical development because of its lack of a theatre—it is a pity that such a nice town is without a good theatre’. In her letter Meredith suggests another reason for the shortness of the season: ‘the audiences could possibly have been disappointed expecting to meet the actors to whom they had listened, only to be met by a group of strangers with different voices and personalities’. Leslie Rees’ assertion that the tour failed badly seems to be correct. Williamson’s new policy was certainly short lived as no further productions were toured to regional areas. And this was the end of the road for The Lawsons on stage—12 performances in five New South Wales country towns in just over two weeks. There is no evidence of any later productions. The photographs preserved in the National Library thus provide a unique record of a little-known chapter in Australia’s theatrical history. Details of the tour of The Lawsons and productions of Gwen Meredith’s other plays can be found on the AusStage website at<www.ausstage.edu.au>. John Thomson is a former arts librarian. He is currently a consultant on ephemera and performing arts resources
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