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'The Greeks developed a number of queer old philosophers. These old chaps were pretty good at their job, and actually anticipated our modern notion that thought has a reality. This is the premise on which Trevor Heath builds his strange play. The central character is a youngish professor who has been doing a lot of research on the Arcadian myths while living in a converted farmhouse. Certain eery happinings [sic] electrify the household — a dog has its throat torn out, a flute is heard playing in the rain, a man dies in the spinney of shock, a girl is bemused by something she has seen.'
Source: 'Broadcast Features from the National Stations', Nambour Chronicle and North Coast Advertiser, 15 March 1940, p.12.
Exhibitions
Production Details
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Australia:
According to newspaper reports,
This play was written in Sydney in 1942, and first produced by the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1943. It has since been broadcast several times by the A.B.C. In a nation-wide plebiscite for the best radio play of 1944 Spinney Under the Rain — which is a fantasy thriller set in England — was rated second to George Bernard Shaw's 'Saint Joan.' (Source: 'Australian Play for the BBC', The Age, 15 October 1949, p.4.)
In fact, the first known Australian broadcast was Wednesday 15 November 1939.
A second production was broadcast on Wednesday 27 March 1940, said to have been influenced by the 'keen controversy' that the first production occasioned (Source: 'Broadcast Features from the National Stations', Nambour Chronicle and North Coast Advertiser, 15 March 1940, p.12).
Subsequent revivals followed in 1941 (7 May), 1942 (17 October), 1943 (10 November), 1945 (15 March, 6 July, and 24 December), 1948 (1 August), 1951 (2 September), 1953 (24 August), 1961 (22 October), and 1964 (18 October).
On 3 July 1982, Spinney under the Rain was broadcast (back-to-back with Douglas Stewart's verse-play The Fire on the Snow) as part of the ABC's 50th anniversary celebrations.
England:
In 1949, the radio play was produced by the BBC and broadcast on the Home Service as the Saturday Matinee.
Producer: Hugh Stewart.
Cast: Martin Lewis (John Urquhart), Rosamund Barnes (Celia, his niece), Courtney Hope (Sara, his sister), Andrew Churchman (Henry, a manservant), Alastair Duncan (Genter, a tenant), Lionel Stevens (Dr Comstock), and Anthony Jacobs (Pan).
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
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cEngland,ccUnited Kingdom (UK),cWestern Europe, Europe,
