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The One Day of the Year by Alan Seymour
This was always my favourite Australian play, and when I suggested Wyong Drama Group present it, I was astounded at how popular a choice it was. I later directed it again in 2001 with both Julie Bailey and Laci Weidlich reprising their roles as Alf and Dot Cook. It opened on 3rd May 1990 and closed on 12 May. There were six performances, all 8pm shows (ie no matinees). The play describes what happens one Anzac Day when Alf Cook's son (Hughie) who is a university student collaborates with Jan Castle (his new girlfriend) to do a piece for the university newspaper. Hughie intends to publish a photographic exposé of the revelries of the diggers in the march, and concentrate not on the honour of the day, but rather the dishonour of the celebrations. During the play, Wacka, who lives next door, and is an original WWI digger describes the Anzac landing at Gallipoli to Dot Cook (mum) in vivid detail. Jan is astounded that they finally get to meet a real live digger, and wants to know more, but Wacka is traditionally tight-lipped over the entire campaign, in contrast to Alf who was in WWII with Wacka. All goes well, but Hughie is in two minds as to whether to publish the article or not. When Alf arrives home after the march in his usual state, Hughie is disgusted and goes ahead. Alf sees the article and initially thinks it is an article praising the diggers, but then discovers the true intents of the article. He explains to all what Anzac Day really means to him in one of the most moving speeches of Australian drama. The 2001 page has some mini-video extracts of the play including Wacka's description of the landing and Alf's explanation of the day. The One Day of the Year (1990) Programme (pdf file, 569,382 bytes) (Incidentally, the programme was produced on an old Commodore-Amiga 500 computer. Those were the days).
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