The AustLit Australian Drama Archive - Max Afford

The AustLit Australian Drama Archive

(Status : Public)

Coordinated by Australian Drama Archive

Max Afford (1906-1954)
Max Afford
Max Afford wrote immensely popular radio plays and serials throughout his career. He was known best for his mastery of drama, plot, and characterisation. His radio thrillers were in high demand.

The plays available through the Australian Drama Archive showcase Afford's range in writing both stage and radio plays. Works such as Mischief in the Air and Lady in Danger are exciting and fun, while Lazy in the Sun and Consulting Room contain serious themes under a pleasant veneer.

In Awake My Love, he wrote a passionately defensive history of Colonel William Light, the first surveyor-General of South Australia, who Afford felt had been wronged. The play won the South Australian Centenary Drama Competition. His wife, Thelma Afford, designed costumes for several productions of his plays, including Awake My Love.

Afford sold several plays overseas and wrote many which were never published or produced. His novels and short stories were popular. They centred around detective fiction and in particular his reoccurring protagonist, Jeffery Blackburn. Afford turned over a vast amount of writing in his lifetime, including long-running serials.

This page contains two slideshows with material sourced from The Fryer Library at The University of Queensland. They include photos from Max and Thelma’s personal photo album and costume designs by Thelma for Awake My Love. Image sources can be found at the bottom of the page.
Max Afford was born in Adelaide in 1906. He began his career as a journalist, but in the following decades he would go on to write some of the most popular radio and stage plays in Australia. Full of clever schemes and witty dialogue, Afford’s detective stories were extremely popular. He also wrote dramas with political overtones, which ranged from examinations of Australian life after the Second World War to the founding of his home town, Adelaide.

See full AustLit entry
The Plays
(Display Format : Landscape)

(Scheme : scheme-pink)

The Flail of God

A minister's ten year old son disappears, and a headless and mutilated body is found in the Thames. A partly obliterated birth mark—a star on the chest—convinces the minister that his brilliant and motherless son, to whom he was devotedly attached, has been foully murdered. He secures the position of hangman in the hope of one day executing his son's destroyer.

See the AustLit record for The Flail of God.

Read the play here.

(Display Format : Landscape)

(Scheme : scheme-pink)

Lady in Danger

Monica Sefton has worked out the perfect murder, and once she finishes her crime play she is certain to be famous. But she doesn't count on her manuscript mysteriously disappearing, or on the sudden appearance of a stray black cat. These omens mark the beginning of events Monica never imagined—a real murder case where she is the key suspect.

See the AustLit record for Lady in Danger.

Read the play here.

(Display Format : Landscape)

(Scheme : scheme-pink)

Mischief in the Air

The action takes place in a studio audition-room... The story concerns Larry Carlson, Australian soldier, and Clay Tuttle, an American serviceman, who meet in Finschhafen, New Guinea. When both are invalided out of the Army, they meet again in Sydney, and it is then that their plans of acquiring a radio station are realised. The success of this venture depends entirely on interesting two wealthy sponsors. An audition is duly arranged, and Mr. McGuinnis is present, while Mr. Mandelberg listens-in at home. But Mr McGuinnis rather complicates things by falling out of his chair, dead.

See the AustLit record for Mischief in the Air.

Read the play here.

(Display Format : Landscape)

(Scheme : scheme-pink)

Awake My Love

This play is based on the life of Colonel William Light, the first surveyor-General of South Australia. When the action takes place, Light has arrived in South Australia to find that his surveying equipment and staff are not up to the huge task before him. Tempers rise in the colony when immigrants arrive to find that the land they purchased has not yet been surveyed. Light’s antagonist, John Hindmarsh, is determined to compromise Light’s career. Amongst the jealousy and anger, Light finds comfort in a young woman named Linda Manners.

See the AustLit record for Awake My Love.

Read the play here.

(Display Format : Landscape)

(Scheme : scheme-pink)

Consulting Room

Clem and Carla are adamant that they will never bring a child into a world ravaged by war—a world where cancer tragically takes people’s lives. They see senseless death all around them. After travelling very far to see Sir Earnest in his Consulting Room, they are dismayed to discover that they do not have an appointment. However, in this mysterious, fantastical place, they find themselves in the company of a young man and an elderly spinster who will change their lives forever.

See the AustLit record for Consulting Room.

Read the play here.

(Display Format : Landscape)

(Scheme : scheme-pink)

Lazy in the Sun

Alice Morton, wife of a wealthy Sydney bookmaker, took time off from her "full rich life" of card parties, committees, fashion parades and race meetings to send a food parcel to England. Her conscience salved, she immediately forgot the action. But it was recalled twelve months later when Valerie Hickman, a young woman from London called on Mrs. Morton to thank her for the gift.

See the AustLit record for Lazy in the Sun.

Read the play here.

(Display Format : Landscape)

(Scheme : scheme-pink)

Merry Go Round

Merry Go Round won first prize in the Australian Broadcasting Commission's 1936 Australian plays and sketches competition.

View the AustLit record for Merry Go Round.

Read the play here.

Max and Thelma Afford (1948)

Max and Thelma Afford

Max and Thelma (mid 1940s)

Thelma Afford

Max and Thelma Afford

Photos provided courtesy of the Fryer Library, The University of Queensland.

Local Call Number UQFL184, Box 3, Item 43.

Max and Thelma Afford (1948)

Max and Thelma Afford

Max and Thelma (mid 1940s)

Thelma Afford

Max and Thelma Afford

Photos provided courtesy of the Fryer Library, The University of Queensland.

Local Call Number UQFL184, Box 3, Item 43.

(Display Format : Portrait)

Photos of Max and Thelma Afford

Amelia, Act 3, Scene 1

Amelia, Act 2

Travers Finniss

Henry Manners

Captain Hindmarsh

Linda, Act 3, Scene 1

Linda

Algernon

Mrs. Manners

Photos provided courtesy of the Fryer Library, The University of Queensland.

Local Call Number UQFL184, Album 2.

Amelia, Act 3, Scene 1

Amelia, Act 2

Travers Finniss

Henry Manners

Captain Hindmarsh

Linda, Act 3, Scene 1

Linda

Algernon

Mrs. Manners

Photos provided courtesy of the Fryer Library, The University of Queensland.

Local Call Number UQFL184, Album 2.

(Display Format : Portrait)

Costume Designs for Awake My Love
Image Credits

All images used are under Creative Commons CC0. They have been edited for publication.

The Flail of God

Untitled, Pixabay. Source.

Lady in Danger

Untitled, Pixabay. Source.

Mischief in the Air

Untitled, Pixabay. Source.

Awake My Love

Untitled, Pixabay. Source.

Consulting Room

Untitled, Pixabay. Source.

Lazy in the Sun

Untitled, Pixabay. Source.

Merry Go Round

Untitled, Pixabay. Source.

Photos of Max and Thelma Afford

Photos provided courtesy of the Fryer Library, The University of Queensland.

Local Call Number UQFL184, Box 3, Item 43.

Costume Designs for Awake My Love

Photos provided courtesy of the Fryer Library, The University of Queensland.

Local Call Number UQFL184, Album 2.