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y separately published work icon Remember Ronald Ryan single work   drama   - Two acts
Issue Details: First known date: 1994... 1994 Remember Ronald Ryan
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The human and political story of the last man to be executed in Australia, Remember Ronald Ryan won the 1995 Victorian Premiers Literary Award. Dickins portrays the man behind the legend as lovable, cheeky, courageous, and wretched. This edition includes Ryan, a new monodrama spoken from Ryans perspective that speaks to a new audience from his poor and unmarked grave. (Barry Dickins)' (Publication summary)

Reading Australia

Reading Australia

This work has Reading Australia teaching resources.

Unit Suitable For

AC: Year 10 (NSW Stage 5)

Themes

Australian identity, capital punishment, fate, justice, morality, redemption, social class

General Capabilities

Critical and creative thinking, Ethical understanding, Literacy

Notes

  • Dedication: For Ian Grindlay

Production Details

  • First produced at Playbox Theatre Centre, Melbourne, 21 September 1994.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Strawberry Hills, Inner Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,: Currency Press , 2014 .
      image of person or book cover 3798780471656103455.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 110p.
      ISBN: 9781925005295
      Series: Current Theatre Series Currency Press (publisher), 1983- series - publisher 'Current Theatre Series consists of Australian plays published with the program inserted and sold during theatre seasons. The aim of the series is to promote and encourage new dramatic writing and make it accessible to theatregoers and the public. The text is presented at the first day of rehearsal and does not contain changes which the author may choose to make after the play has commenced its present season - these will be incorporated into any new edition published by Currency.' Currency Press.

Works about this Work

[Essay] : Remember Ronald Ryan Jeff Sparrow , 2013 single work essay
— Appears in: Reading Australia 2013-;

'‘Please admit the bearer…to the execution of Ronald Joseph Ryan, on 3rd February, 1967.’

'This invitation, received by journalists covering the last hanging in Australian history, hints at why Ronald Ryan’s story translates so well into the theatre. For the message sounds like a pass to any ordinary show. And why not? An execution is intended as a performance, an elaborate display of the state’s power over its subjects. But the ghoulish phrasing also illustrates a key theme in Barry Dickins’ Remember Ronald Ryan, in which the Ryan execution represents a bridge between two different eras. The authorities at Pentridge Prison modelled their procedures – and their invitation – on the ancient traditions of English hangmen. But in the Melbourne of 1967 those traditions seemed, like the execution itself, a grotesque legacy of an earlier age.' (Introduction)

Last Man Hanged in Victoria Catherine Deery , 2004 single work review
— Appears in: Tain , August-September 2004; (p. 24)

— Review of Remember Ronald Ryan Barry Dickins , 1994 single work drama
Hoy Polloy Revisits Ronald Ryan with Dickins John Mangan , 2002 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 28 May 2002; (p. 4)
Less Sympathy, More Drama and Editing Needed Helen Thomson , 2002 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 31 May 2002; (p. 4)

— Review of Remember Ronald Ryan Barry Dickins , 1994 single work drama
Untitled Lisa Hickey , 1996 single work review
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , April no. 28 1996; (p. 185-190)

— Review of Remember Ronald Ryan Barry Dickins , 1994 single work drama
Last Man Hanged in Victoria Catherine Deery , 2004 single work review
— Appears in: Tain , August-September 2004; (p. 24)

— Review of Remember Ronald Ryan Barry Dickins , 1994 single work drama
Culminating in Death Simon Clews , 1995 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , February-March no. 168 1995; (p. 54-55)

— Review of Sanctuary David Williamson , 1994 single work drama ; Remember Ronald Ryan Barry Dickins , 1994 single work drama
Comi-Tragic Life Explored Steven Carroll , 1994 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 16 September 1994; (p. 7)

— Review of Remember Ronald Ryan Barry Dickins , 1994 single work drama
A Likeable Larrikin Meets the Hangman Leonard Radic , 1994 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 23 September 1994; (p. 17)

— Review of Remember Ronald Ryan Barry Dickins , 1994 single work drama
Ryan's Slaughter: a Tragedy of Errors Steven Carroll , 1994 single work review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 2 October 1994; (p. 7)

— Review of Remember Ronald Ryan Barry Dickins , 1994 single work drama
Hanged but Not Forgotten Patricia Rolfe , 1996 single work column
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 28 May vol. 116 no. 6022 1996; (p. 88)
Judging Drama Geoffrey Milne , 1996 single work criticism
— Appears in: Eureka Street , December vol. 6 no. 10 1996; (p. 45-46)
Ron the Bungler Barry Dickins , 1994 single work biography
— Appears in: The Age , 17 September 1994; (p. 11)
Ghost of Ronald Ryan Stirs Playwright's Pen Gary Hughes , 1993 single work biography
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 20-21 March 1993; (p. 5)
Hoy Polloy Revisits Ronald Ryan with Dickins John Mangan , 2002 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 28 May 2002; (p. 4)
Last amended 3 Apr 2020 09:25:59
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