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Brumby Innes 'begins with a corroboree and, like Coonardoo, attempts to engage with a portrayal of Aboriginal life. Its central character, Brumby Innes, is a swaggering drunk who exploits the black workers on his station and abuses the women; he bears a close resemblance to Sam Geary in Coonardoo. Yet, Brumby Innes provides the central energy of the drama, and the celebration of that energy in the play conflicts with the dramatic critique of his sexism and racism. Brumby Innes's character exemplifies the ambivalent attitude in Prichard's work toward this type of male hero. Portrayed as stereotypically masculine, such characters are admired for their energetic, vital sexuality; yet, the extreme limitations of such maleness are also acknowledged.'
Source: Bird, Delys. 'Katharine Susannah Prichard.' Australian Writers, 1915-1950. Ed. Selina Samuels. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 260.
Notes
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Dedication: To Hilda Esson
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Prichard submitted Brumby Innes to the 1927 Triad Drama Competition under the pen-name 'Meroo'.
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The November 1972 production of Brumby Innes at the Pram Factory 'was so successful that a grant was sought and received to film the production. It was filmed at Channel 0 (now Channel 10) and went to air in June 1973 ... One result of the television production was that Koori members of the cast were picked up for other television productions.' (Casey, Maryrose. Creating Frames: Contemporary Indigenous Theatre: 1967-1990 (2004): 63-64.)
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A sound recording, produced by the ABC, Sydney, 1993, is held at Fryer Library, University of Queensland Library.
Production Details
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Performed by the Australian Performing Group and Nindethana Theatre at the Pram Factory, Carlton, Melbourne, 1-30 November 1972. Director: John Smythe. Cast: Dennis Miller, Lynette Curran, Vic Marsh, Peter Cummins, Maria Briggs, Val Power, Elizabeth Hoffman, Monica Hoffman, Harry Williams, Joyce Johnson, Jack Charles, Bert Williams, Ian Johnson, Bernie Hoffman.
Also produced at the Nimrod Uptairs, Surry Hills, Sydney, 28 November 1983; and at the Street Theatre Studio, Acton, Canberra, 23 September 1995.
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(Brumby Innes did not achieve a promised production with the Melbourne Repertory Theatre although Katharine Susannah Prichard and the director, Gregan McMahon, corresponded about the style and design of the production.)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also sound recording.
Works about this Work
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Different Workers : Political Commitment and Subaltern Labour in Katharine Susannah Prichard’s Brumby Innes
2015
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Postcolonial Writing , vol. 51 no. 6 2015; (p. 648-660) 'Katharine Susannah Prichard’s Aboriginal writings from the 1920s are among the earliest, by a communist, to represent Aboriginal workers in the Australian cattle industry. However, critics have not, in general, situated these writings in relation to Prichard’s Marxist politics or to left-wing discourse more generally. Indeed, there is a general consensus that Prichard’s socialism could not inform her writings about colonial relationships in the way it informed those about white workers. This article reassesses this position by situating her rarely read play Brumby Innes in relation to discourses about race and labour in the Communist Party and on the left in Australia in the 1920s. It argues that Brumby Innes grapples with the disconnection between the concerns of the Australian left and the conditions of Aboriginal workers, at times explicitly pointing to the left’s failure to address the exploitation of Aborigines working on cattle stations. It suggests that Prichard’s own orthodox Marxist commitments were stretched and challenged by her encounter with the Aboriginal worker, and that Brumby Innes constitutes a crucial meditation on silence, political inarticulacy and rage.' (Source: Abstract) -
Brutalising the Aboriginal Body : Exposition of White Masculinity in Brumby Innes?
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Empowering and Disempowering Indigenes : Staging Australian Aboriginal Experience 2010; (p. 260-269) -
The Politics of Race and the Possibilities of Form in the Work of Katharine Susannah Prichard
2003
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Frank Hardy and the Literature of Commitment 2003; (p. 185-197) -
y
Untitled
Sydney
:
1997
8281319
1997
single work
thesis
'A history of Katharine Susannah Prichard's 1927 play entitled Brumby Innes. The Prichard papers (NLA MS 6201) at the National Library of Australia were used to write the essay.' (Trove Australia)
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Untitled
1995
single work
review
— Appears in: Muse , November-December no. 147 1995; (p. 41)
— Review of Brumby Innes : A Play in Three Acts 1927 single work drama ; The Time is Not Yet Ripe : A Comedy in Four Acts 1912 single work drama
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Natural Sexuality : Katharine Prichard's "Brumby Innes"
1973
single work
review
— Appears in: Meanjin Quarterly , Autumn vol. 32 no. 1 1973; (p. 91-93)
— Review of Brumby Innes : A Play in Three Acts 1927 single work drama -
Reality, 1927-Style, is Not So Far Away
1995
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 26 September 1995; (p. 20)
— Review of Brumby Innes : A Play in Three Acts 1927 single work drama -
Untitled
1995
single work
review
— Appears in: Muse , November-December no. 147 1995; (p. 41)
— Review of Brumby Innes : A Play in Three Acts 1927 single work drama ; The Time is Not Yet Ripe : A Comedy in Four Acts 1912 single work drama -
Brumby Innes
1940
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 16 October vol. 61 no. 3166 1940; (p. 2)
— Review of Brumby Innes : A Play in Three Acts 1927 single work drama -
Untitled
1972
single work
review
— Appears in: The National Times , 6-11 November 1972; (p. 21)
— Review of Brumby Innes : A Play in Three Acts 1927 single work drama -
The Politics of Race and the Possibilities of Form in the Work of Katharine Susannah Prichard
2003
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Frank Hardy and the Literature of Commitment 2003; (p. 185-197) -
Katharine Susannah Prichard's Brumby Innes : Feminism and the Australian Outback
1994-1995
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Commonwealth Review , vol. 6 no. 1 1994-1995; (p. 59-70) - y Katharine Susannah Prichard and the Representation of Aborigines in Her Short Fiction, 'Brumby Innes' and 'Coonardoo' Nedlands : 1994 Z1387821 1994 single work thesis
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Brutalising the Aboriginal Body : Exposition of White Masculinity in Brumby Innes?
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Empowering and Disempowering Indigenes : Staging Australian Aboriginal Experience 2010; (p. 260-269) -
Drama
1981
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Oxford History of Australian Literature 1981; (p. 175-267)
Awards
- 1927 winner Triad Drama Competition
- Western Australia,
- Australian Outback, Central Australia,