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Voyage Out

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"Voyage Out"
Australian Plays episode
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 2
Directed byJohn Croyston
Teleplay byJohn Croyston
Original air date5 November 1969 (1969-11-05)
Running time70 mins[1]
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"Voyage Out" is a 1969[2] Australian TV play. It aired as part of the Australian Plays anthology series on the ABC.[3][4][5]

Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.[6]

Premise

A woman, Kathy, decides to reject a series of fleeting physical encounters and believes she has found her ideal mate in Robert, a poet. Robert cannot believe he has the power to hold her and they both strive to convince themselves and everyone else that they are happy.

She discovers her husband Robert is dead.[7]

Cast

Reception

The Canberra Times thought Croyston's "sympathetic direction saved the play and gave it something it otherwise lacked. On the other hand perhaps a director without the bond of authorship could have been more ruthless and speeded it up. The story was unsubtle, rather melodramatic. It did have some surprisingly perceptive and original moments, however, such as when Kathy discovers Robert with his head in the gas oven and in her shock begins to beat his dead body calling him a "revolting little man". Food for thought: had she always hated him? The most important thing is that the plays are being televised. If they are not BBC standard at least they are getting an airing."[8]

Reviewing the year in Australian TV, The Age said the six plays of Australian Plays were "more dull than bad with the exception of "A Voyage Out" notable for the TV debut of the diminutive Ray Hartley who played child parts in radio series."[9]

References

  1. ^ "WEDNESDAY". The Canberra Times. Vol. 44, no. 12, 458. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 3 November 1969. p. 18. Retrieved 14 September 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ "TV Guide". Sydney Morning Herald. 30 October 1969. p. 42.
  3. ^ Marshall, Valda. "Six Australian Plays in ABC Series". Sydney Morning Herald. p. 121.
  4. ^ "Letters TO THE EDITOR". The Canberra Times. Vol. 44, no. 12, 467. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 13 November 1969. p. 2. Retrieved 14 September 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ "Australian plays on ABC-TV". The Canberra Times. Vol. 44, no. 12, 452. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 27 October 1969. p. 15. Retrieved 14 September 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^ Vagg, Stephen (February 18, 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  7. ^ "TELEVISION Frank in colour". The Canberra Times. Vol. 44, no. 12, 462. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 7 November 1969. p. 17. Retrieved 18 February 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ "TELEVISION Frank in colour". The Canberra Times. Vol. 44, no. 12, 462. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 7 November 1969. p. 17. Retrieved 14 September 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ^ Televiewer (24 December 1969). "Women Led the Way". The Age. p. 12.