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Outpost is a 1959 Australian television play about Australian soldiers in New Guinea during World War Two. It was written for television by John Cameron.

It was one of the most acclaimed early Australian-written TV plays.

Plot

In September 1943, during World War Two, four Australian soldiers are stranded in an isolated army outpost in New Guinea, waiting for an attack on Buna. The soldiers include Sergeant 'Happy' Adams, Signaler 'Tiger' Lyons and Corporal 'Mitch' Mitchell. Tension happens when McCudden, an arrogant NCO from the airforce, arrives, bringing mail for Happy.

McCudden is murdered and the soldiers fear a Japanese attack.

Mitch reads in a newspaper that Happy's wife has died in Brisbane. Happy reveals his wife had been having an affair with another man back and when relatives found out and threatened to write to Happy, she committed suicide. The men discover photographs of McCudden's girlfriends, who included Happy's wife.

Cast

• Syd Conabere as Signaller "Tiger" Lyons
• Keith Eden as Sergeant 'Happy' Adams
• Paul Karo as Flight Sgt. Steve McCudden
• Dennis Miller as Corporal "Mitch" Mitchell
• John Morgan as Signaller "Baron" Peterswald

Production

John Cameron had been a sergeant in the Australian Army Signal Corps during World War Two. He served in New Guinea at Wanagila, where a secret airstrip was being made in preparation for an attack on Japanese-held Buna, 40 miles away.

Cameron was working as a supervisor of facilities at the ABC in Melbourne at the ABC. He had been involved with theatre since his says at university and said he had the story in mind for many years but was prompted to write it when he heard about the shortage of TV scripts and decided to write his own. It took him eight weekends over June and July and he submitted it under a pen name, "John Alexander". The identity of the writer surprised the ABC.

The production was performed "live" in a Melbourne studio, with the exception of a jungle sequence, which was pre-recorded. It was the first TV performance for Dennis Miller. The director was Chris Muir, made it just before he filmed Albert Herring for the ABC. Muir said he liked the play's "economy of dialogue and mounting tension."

Kunai grass was imported for use in the show. Bananas were bought especially from Queensland. The Australian Army provided firearms including Owen guns, Tommy guns and rifles

Reception

The Sydney Morning Herald said:

The author makes no better than commonplace use of the clever idea... playwright and play could have been helped by clevered hints of the general heat malaise, crawling fear and eginess of jungle fighting from producer Christopher Muir, whose imagination never rose above neat routine. The cast performed creditably, powerful or rich playing being excluded for the most part by flat, everyday commonplace of the dialogue... Paul Karo's portrait... was much too overdone to be convincing, but there was much conviction in the performance of young and intense Denis Miller and sufficient conviction in the work of his more experienced co players.

Cameron went on to write the television plays The Teeth of the Wind (1962), Otherwise Engaged (1965), and The Quiet Season (1965).

US screening

The play was bought for screening in the US by CBS in 1961 along with another Australian play, The Scent of Fear. The two dramas screened on June 18, 1961 in several key markets including New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago and St Louis.

The New York Times wrote that "unfortunately Mr Cameron telegraphed his resolution early in the drama and also greviously overtaxed the element of coincidence. But the settings and direction were first rate."

See also

• List of live television plays broadcast on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (1950s)

References

1. Men at Play: Masculinities in Australian Theatre Since the 1950s by Jonathan Bollen, Bruce Parr, Adrian Kiernander Rodopi, 2008 p98
2. Vagg, Stephen (16 April 2021). "Forgotten Australian TV Plays: Outpost". Filmink.
3. Remembering masculinities in the theatre of war Bollen, Jonathan. Australasian Drama Studies; St. Lucia Iss. 46, (Apr 2005): 3-0_3
4. "Jungle Outpost". Sydney Morning Herald. 7 December 1959. p. 7.
5. ^ "ABC Dramas". The Age. 1 June 1961. p. 12.
6. ^ "The Prop Man Wrote a Play". TV Times. 10 December 1959. p. 5.
7. "Identity of Author of TV play a surprise for the ABC". The Age. 10 September 1959. p. 15.
8. "From comic opera to tense jungle drama". The Age. 22 October 1959.
9. "Kunai Grass for Jungle Drama". The Age. 12 November 1959. p. 13.
10. "Live Play on ABC", Sydney Morning Herald, 10 December 1959 p 17
11. TV: A Situation Series: Wayne and Shuster Are Seen in 'Holiday Lodge,' Replacement for Jack Benny By JACK GOULD. New York Times 26 June 1961: 51.

External links

• Outpost at IMDb
• Outpost at AusStage
• Outpost at AustLit

• 1959 Australian television plays
• 1959 television plays
• Plays about World War II
• Films set in Papua New Guinea
• Australian Broadcasting Corporation television plays
• Television plays filmed in Melbourne
• Television plays directed by Chris Muir