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Written in Hewett's freewheeling epic style, The Chapel Perilous is a journey play that spans the period between the 1930s and the late 1960s. The story concerns Sally Banner, an over-reacher who attempts to find fulfilment – whether through her gift of poetic expression, through her sexual relationships, or in later years through political activism - and ultimately finds it through self-acceptance. Thematically the play contains the qualities and concerns which are often associated with Hewett's style – female sexuality, questioning of authority and morality, and anarchic tendencies towards structure in both dramatic text and social attitudes.
As Hewett remarks in her 1979 Hecate article: 'Sally is balanced by several symbolic female figures, the "Authority figures" of Headmistress, Anglican teaching "sister", and mother... [along with the] lesbian love figure, Judith, who stands for intellectual control and denial of sensual love' ('Creating Heroines in Australian Plays', p. 77).
Adaptations
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form
y
The Chapel Perilous; or, the Perilous Adventures of Sally Banner
United Kingdom (UK)
:
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
,
1976
7953221
1976
single work
radio play
A radio adaptation of Dorothy Hewett's stage play.
Notes
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'The Chapel Perilous derives from Sir Thomas Malory's The Tale of King Arthur, 1485 (Winchester MA, Caxton, Book VI. How Sir Lancelot cam into the chapel perelus and gate there of a ded corps, a pyece of the cloth and a sworde...'
Source: Tait, Peta and Elizabeth Schafer (eds.) Australian Women's Drama: Texts and Feminisms (1997): 3.
Production Details
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First produced at the New Fortune Theatre, Perth, 21 January 1971. Director: Aarne Neeme. The composers were Frank Arndt and Michael Leydon.
There have been further productions since 1971 including those of the Union Theatre (Melbourne University, 1972) and the Old Tote Theatre Company (Sydney Opera House, 1974). Both these productions were directed by George Whaley.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also sound recording.
Works about this Work
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Looking for the Soft Spot
2018
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , Spring vol. 77 no. 3 2018; (p. 35)'Biographies OF Dorothy Hewett (1923-2002) usually include a short section like this: In 1944 she married communist lawyer Lloyd Davies and had a son who died of leukemia at age three. The marriage ended in divorce in 1948, following Hewett's departure to Sydney to live with Les Flood, a boilermaker, with whom she had three sons over five years'. That was from Wikipedia. It's just a few sentences, a handful of facts notable for many reasons, working backwards: the quick succession of births, the shift from a middle-class; marriage into a working-class one, the death of a child. He was her first child, named Clancy after the Aboriginal activist Clancy McKenna. Clancy, the child, was born in Perth and died tragically in Melbourne in 1950. The thing that snippet from Wikipedia doesn't make clear—that few biographies explore further than the bare facts-is that when Hewett left Davies, she left Clancy too. His sickness and death came the following year.' (Introduction)
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2017 Arts Highlights of the Year
2017
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 396 2017; (p. 39-43)'To celebrate the year’s memorable plays, films, concerts, operas, ballets, and exhibitions, we invited twenty-six critics and arts professionals to nominate some personal favourites.' (Introduction)
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Sex, Poetry and The Chapel Perilous
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Conversation , 3 May 2017; 'When she died in 2002, The Age hailed Dorothy Hewett as “the grande dame of Australian literature” and gave a thumbnail sketch of her remarkable life as poet, dramatist, novelist, Communist Party activist and serial lover. Calling her a free spirit doesn’t come close to capturing the turbulent, at times self-destructive energy that marked Hewitt’s relationships and her work.' (Introduction) -
Performing 1971 : Dorothy Hewett’s ‘The Chapel Perilous’
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Westerly , vol. 61 no. 2 2016; (p. 126-143) 'It is eight o'clock in the evening on the 21 January, 1971, and the heat from an 100-plus degree day dissipates in the night air. Dorothy Hewett's third serious play, The Chapel Perilous, is opening at The New Fortune Theatre. Built as a fourth wall to the Arts Building at the University of Western Australia in 1964, The New Fortune is a multi-storey outdoor space designed as an Elizabethan stage. The play's director is Aaren Neeme, a young, sympathetic collaborator with whom Hewett has been working closely in rehearsals. .. (Introduction) -
[Essay 1] : The Chapel Perilous
2013
single work
essay
— Appears in: Reading Australia 2013-;'Dorothy Hewett belongs to a long line of women who spoke out of turn.
'So does Sally Banner.
'Dorothy Hewett blazed a trail for women writers, and for Australian playwrights (of all genders) interested in theatrical innovation.
'I like to think that I’m part of that lineage.' (Introduction)
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Assaying the New Drama
1973
single work
review
— Appears in: Meanjin Quarterly , Winter vol. 32 no. 2 1973; (p. 189-195) Responses : Selected Writings 1979; (p. 182-189) Contemporary Australian Drama : Perspectives Since 1955 1981; (p. 217-224)
— Review of The Third Secretary : A Play 1972 single work drama ; A Stretch of the Imagination 1971 single work drama ; The Removalists 1971 single work drama ; Four Australian Plays 1973 selected work drama ; The Chapel Perilous, Or, The Perilous Adventures of Sally Banner 1972 single work musical theatre ; The Lucky Streak : A Play 1966 single work dramaA. A. Phillips introduces his review of six new Australian dramas by saying: 'The quality of these plays, and others in the present burgeoning, is perhaps not the most important consideration. It matters much more that they are here and that they are satisfying audiences. Culturally in the widest sense of the word, the theatre's first importance is not as a potent vehicle of art, but as the place where a crosssection of the community has a common, and preferably a significant, experience. But so long as our theatre presented almost entirely imported material it forfeited half its power to develop our social coherence. Moreover, it fed our tendency to drowse into acceptance of a client-state mentality. It therefore matters a good deal that a sizeable slice of our common entertainment is now being presented by our own entertainers concerned with our own forms of living and igniting an eagerness of response. If their plays are also good art or penetrating social comment, so very much the better; but that is not their primary social function.' (Meanjin 32.2 (June 1973):189)
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[Review] The Removalists
1972
single work
review
— Appears in: Nation Review , 25-30 November 1972; (p. 201)
— Review of The Lucky Streak : A Play 1966 single work drama ; The Removalists 1971 single work drama ; The Chapel Perilous, Or, The Perilous Adventures of Sally Banner 1972 single work musical theatre -
Australian Drama Gains Currency
1973
single work
review
— Appears in: Makar , July vol. 9 no. 1 1973; (p. 45-48)
— Review of The Lucky Streak : A Play 1966 single work drama ; The Slaughter of St. Teresa's Day : A Play 1959 single work drama ; Macquarie : A Play 1971 single work drama ; The Chapel Perilous, Or, The Perilous Adventures of Sally Banner 1972 single work musical theatre ; The Removalists 1971 single work drama -
Nice, Seamy Drama
1972
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 30 September 1972; (p. 12)
— Review of The Chapel Perilous, Or, The Perilous Adventures of Sally Banner 1972 single work musical theatre -
Untitled
1972
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 30 September 1972; (p. 14)
— Review of The Chapel Perilous, Or, The Perilous Adventures of Sally Banner 1972 single work musical theatre -
Dorothy Hewett's Paths to the Chapel Perilous
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Westerly , July vol. 54 no. 1 2009; (p. 170-188) Discusses Dorothy Hewett's transition from a Communist writer in the 1960s to a dramatist recognised as a feminist in the 1970s. -
Changing Scenery : The Central Character on the Australian Stage
2001
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Defining Acts : Australia on Stage : A Centenary of Federation Exhibition Celebrating the Australian Character on the Popular Stage over the Past 100 Years 2001; (p. 26-33) ‘The marking of the Centenary of Federation is more than just a celebration of past events. Coming of age involves part memory, part invention. The process is to recover, restore and even fabricate the monuments of social history. Landmarks, whether geographical, social or political, are cherished for the ways in which they trigger memories and shape the collective consciousness, this deepening our sense of ourselves as a race, a community or a nation. History resurrected can breathe new life into the established norms and force a reconsideration of assumptions.’ (p. 26) -
"I was a Rebel in Word and Deed": Dorothy Hewett's "The Chapel Perilous" and Contemporary Australian Feminist Writing
1993
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian & New Zealand Studies in Canada , December no. 10 1993; (p. 41-56) -
Optimism in Recent Australian Drama
1976
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Landfall , no. 118 1976; (p. 162-167) -
A Vision Splendid
1996
single work
column
biography
— Appears in: Muse , September no. 155 1996; (p. 7)
- Country towns,
- ca. 1930-1969