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y separately published work icon A Stretch of the Imagination single work   drama   - One act
Issue Details: First known date: 1971... 1971 A Stretch of the Imagination
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Adaptations

form y separately published work icon A Stretch of the Imagination United Kingdom (UK) : British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) , 1976 7953168 1976 single work radio play

'A lonely old man far outback in the desert, reliving his past by a stretch of the imagination.'

Source: Radio Times, 8 January 1976, p.27.

Production Details

    • First produced by the Australian Performing Group at the Pram Factory, Melbourne, 8 March 1972.
    • Produced on BBC radio, England, 1975.
    • Was also produced in Shanghai, 1987, in Mandarin - the first Australian play produced in China.
    • Produced by HIT Productions in 2009 as a 14-week tour to 26 capital city, metropolitan, regional and remote theatre venues Australia wide.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

      1971 .
      Extent: 54 leavesp.
      Description: Typescript (photocopy).
      (Manuscript) assertion

      Holdings

      Held at: University of Queensland University of Queensland Library Fryer Library
      Local Id: H0818
    • Woollahra, Sydney Eastern Harbourside, Sydney Eastern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Currency Press , 1973 .
      Alternative title: A Stretch of the Imagination : A Play
      Extent: vii, 53p.p.
      ISBN: 0858930269, 0858930277 (pbk.)
      Series: Currency Playtexts : Series 2 series - publisher
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Plays of the 70s [Volume 1] Katharine Brisbane (editor), Sydney : Currency Press , 1998 Z34704 1998 anthology drama (taught in 11 units) Sydney : Currency Press , 1998 pg. 163-214
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Selected Plays Jack Hibberd , Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2000 Z795032 2000 selected work drama (taught in 3 units)

    Three landmark plays from the renaissance of Australian playwriting: 'White with Wire Wheels' was the first play to examine the insecurity inherent in the male culture of women and cars; 'Dimboola', a Rabelaisian account of a country wedding; Monk O'Neill, of 'A Stretch of the Imagination' has become an archetype of Australian character.

    Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2000
    pg. 107-148

Other Formats

  • Also braille, sound recording.

Works about this Work

Williamson, Hibberd and the Better Angels of Our Country’s Nature Julian Meyrick , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Conversation , 22 October 2017;

'Two of Australian theatre’s most celebrated artists are scientists. Their CVs may not be immediately recognizable. One is an engineer, an ex-thermodynamics lecturer, and holds a Masters degree in social psychology. The other is a medical doctor, a onetime hospital registrar, and a specialist in clinical immunology.' (Introduction)

How Australian is It? Alison Croggon , 2010 single work essay
— Appears in: Overland , Spring no. 200 2010; (p. 55-62)
Director Sets a High Bar Fiona Gruber , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 24 August 2010 2010; (p. 16)
Adam Spreadbury-Maher, an artistic director from Canberra, is currently (2010), leading a revival of London's pub theatre scene.
Stage is the First Love for Wood Victoria Bruce , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 13 - 14 June 2009; (p. 13)

— Review of A Stretch of the Imagination Jack Hibberd , 1971 single work drama
Recluse Loosens the Lingua, Frankly Jason Blake , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 15 May 2009; (p. 12)

— Review of A Stretch of the Imagination Jack Hibberd , 1971 single work drama
Recluse Loosens the Lingua, Frankly Jason Blake , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 15 May 2009; (p. 12)

— Review of A Stretch of the Imagination Jack Hibberd , 1971 single work drama
Stage is the First Love for Wood Victoria Bruce , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 13 - 14 June 2009; (p. 13)

— Review of A Stretch of the Imagination Jack Hibberd , 1971 single work drama
Max is Monk Alison Croggon , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 16 October vol. 112 no. 5741 1990; (p. 123-124)

— Review of Fire Graham Henderson , 1990 single work drama ; A Stretch of the Imagination Jack Hibberd , 1971 single work drama ; Meat Graham Henderson , 1990 single work drama
Assaying the New Drama A. A. Phillips , 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 Ralph Peterson , 1972 single work drama ; A Stretch of the Imagination Jack Hibberd , 1971 single work drama ; The Removalists David Williamson , 1971 single work drama ; Four Australian Plays Barbara Stellmach , 1973 selected work drama ; The Chapel Perilous, Or, The Perilous Adventures of Sally Banner Dorothy Hewett , 1972 single work musical theatre ; The Lucky Streak : A Play James Searle , 1966 single work drama

A. 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)

Untitled Katharine Brisbane , 1973 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian , 3 February 1973; (p. 29)

— Review of A Stretch of the Imagination Jack Hibberd , 1971 single work drama
Hibberd and His A Stretch of the Imagination 黄源深 , 1995 single work criticism
— Appears in: A Unique Literature : A Critical View of Australian Literary Works 1995; (p. 129-136)
Wet, in the Mindscape of the Dry: Water Tanks as Nature/Culture Signifiers C. A. Cranston , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Words on Water: Literary and Cultural Representations 2008; (p. 23-38)
The author investigates the impact of Australian literature and European attitudes on water conservation in Australia.
Mis-Recognised Knowledges : National Identity and the Unreliable Narrator in Jack Hibberd's A Stretch of the Imagination and Josephine Wilson's The Geography of Haunted Places Glen McGillivray , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , April no. 52 2008; (p. 69-84)
'In this article I analyse how both works [A Stretch of the Imagination and The Geography of Haunted Places], despite their different historical contexts, enact a critique of Australian identity against a background of significant political change within the country. Although seemingly quite different, these works adopt similar dramaturgical strategies and I argue that their significance lies in their genealogical connection.' (69)
One-Act Role Hits Darker Shades of Blue Ron Cerabona , 2009 single work column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 6 May 2009; (p. 8)
Director Sets a High Bar Fiona Gruber , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 24 August 2010 2010; (p. 16)
Adam Spreadbury-Maher, an artistic director from Canberra, is currently (2010), leading a revival of London's pub theatre scene.
Last amended 7 May 2009 09:35:28
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