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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Playfully vulgar, bawdy and boisterous, Dimboola plays out the wedding reception from hell, with the audience actively playing the roles of the guests. A celebration as much as a satire, the play joyously takes a familiar ritual and turns it uproariously on its head.
Source: Currency Press
(http://www.currency.com.au/search.aspx?type=author&author=Jack+Hibberd)
Adaptations
-
form
y
Dimboola
( dir. John Duigan
)
1979
Melbourne
:
Pram Factory Pictures
,
1979
Z872646
1979
single work
film/TV
humour
Based on Jack Hibberd's popular comedic play and set in the small rural Victorian township of Dimboola, the story takes place in the three days leading up to the marriage of locals Maureen Delaney and Morrie McAdam. Although the film adaptation contains much that is in the original play, it also allows the narrative to move beyond the confines of the single stage setting. Framed around a visiting English journalist who has arrived in the town to study the ways of the 'natives,' the story offers up a variety of images and situations that allow the apparently dim-witted Aussies blokes to do typically ratbag and oddball things with and to each other, usually while knocking back another 'tinnie' or trying to crack onto a sheila.
The dramatic action sees, for example, Morrie undergo the rigours of the shearing-shed bucks party. Amid the booze, obscenities, and fist fights arrives Angelique, a stripper who'll do more than just strip--if the price is right! Complications arise when Dangles, the best man, delivers incriminating photographs of Morrie and Angelique to Maureen, and the mayhem worsens when Morrie's mother reveals that the future bride and groom could actually be first cousins because of a pre-marital fling!
Reading Australia
This work has Reading Australia teaching resources.
Unit Suitable For
AC: Year 11 (Literature Unit 1)
Themes
Australian identity, community, gender, misunderstanding/miscommunication, satire, satire of modern Australian society
General Capabilities
Critical and creative thinking, Intercultural understanding, Literacy, Personal and social
Production Details
-
First produced by the Australian Performing Group at La Mama, Carlton, 6 July 1969 and then professionally by the APG at the Pram Factory, Carlton, 25 April 1973. Dimboola has been produced around Australia.
Contents
- The Last of the Knucklemen, single work drama
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Wedding Party Blues
2011
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 13 September 2011; (p. 13) -
For Better, For Worse, Dimboola
2010
single work
prose
travel
— Appears in: Red Dust & Wanderlust : Tales of Travel in Australia 2010; (p. 179-186) -
Untitled
2008
single work
correspondence
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 5-6 April 2008; (p. 2) -
Timeless, Riotous Marital Mayhem
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 29 March 2008; (p. 23)
— Review of Dimboola : A Wedding Reception Play 1974 single work musical theatre -
Too Close To Home
2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 22-23 March 2008; (p. 6)Graeme Blundell re-visits the original production of Jack Hibberd's Dimboola (directed by Blundell) and reflects on Hibberd's lack of popularity among theatre companies in the early twenty-first century. Blundell also refers to a 2008 production of the play, noting that Dimboola has been seen by more Australians 'than any other stage musical, comedy or straight play'.
-
Timeless, Riotous Marital Mayhem
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 29 March 2008; (p. 23)
— Review of Dimboola : A Wedding Reception Play 1974 single work musical theatre -
Playhouse Caper Bloody Terrific
1973
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 12 May vol. 95 no. 4854 1973; (p. 42)
— Review of Dimboola : A Wedding Reception Play 1974 single work musical theatre -
Untitled
1973
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 11 July 1973; (p. 7)
— Review of Dimboola : A Wedding Reception Play 1974 single work musical theatre -
[Review] Dimboola : A Wedding Reception Play
1973
single work
review
— Appears in: Digger , no. 17 1973; (p. 10)
— Review of Dimboola : A Wedding Reception Play 1974 single work musical theatre -
Untitled
1973
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sunday Telegraph , 29 April 1973; (p. 30)
— Review of Dimboola : A Wedding Reception Play 1974 single work musical theatre -
Too Close To Home
2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 22-23 March 2008; (p. 6)Graeme Blundell re-visits the original production of Jack Hibberd's Dimboola (directed by Blundell) and reflects on Hibberd's lack of popularity among theatre companies in the early twenty-first century. Blundell also refers to a 2008 production of the play, noting that Dimboola has been seen by more Australians 'than any other stage musical, comedy or straight play'. -
Untitled
2008
single work
correspondence
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 5-6 April 2008; (p. 2) -
Jack Hibberd
Jennifer Palmer
(interviewer),
1979
single work
interview
— Appears in: Contemporary Australian Playwrights 1979; (p. 120-136) -
Wedding Party Blues
2011
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 13 September 2011; (p. 13) -
For Better, For Worse, Dimboola
2010
single work
prose
travel
— Appears in: Red Dust & Wanderlust : Tales of Travel in Australia 2010; (p. 179-186)