32 Australian Play by a Writer of European Descent: Alan Seymour – The One Day of the Year

Ms. Safia Begum

About the Module:

This module introduces you to one of the major playwrights of Australian origin, Alan Seymour and also to his play The One Day of the Year. Along with it we will also learn significant concepts associated with the play like ANZAC Day. First, you will be introduced to the life and works of Alan Seymour. Later on in this module we will learn about the background, setting, plot of the play and then critically analyse it. During this process of learning we will find some interesting and important facts about both the playwright and  play.

The Playwright; Alan Seymour: 

Alan Seymour, a renowned playwright, script editor, and producer, was born to Louise nee and Herbert Seymour Warren on 6th June 1927 in Fremantle, Western Australia. His mother was a cockney. She had great fondness for singing and dancing and the same she wanted to inculcate in Alan.  Alan’s father was a seaman. The age of his parents at the time  of his birth was forty-five, Louise and sixty-three, Herbert Seymour and once Alan called himself as “Menopausal baby.” Alan lost his parents at a very young age of nine years. After his parents demise Alan was brought up by his sister, May, and brother-in-law, Alfred Cruthers, who did not have children. Note that the character of Alf Cook of The One Day of the Year was inspired by Alan’s brother-in-law, Alfred Cruthers.

Alan was sent to Perth Modern School but he left it at the age of 15 and at this tender age he also lost faith in religion. Initially Alan worked as a radio announcer at 6PM and wrote short plays. When he grew up he moved to Sydney to work as a copy-writer but after the war he returned to his homeland, Perth. By this time his eldest sister, May, who brought him up was separated from her husband and was suffering from cancer. Alan took care of her till her last breath, 1949. After her death Alan went back to Sydney and began to work in ABC and started to direct and write his own plays. Later, he left Sydney and settled in London for almost four decades where he worked as a television writer and producer. He later returned to Sydney to settle permanently. He has also spent five year in Turkey when his partner, Ron Baddeley was offered a teaching post there.

Works of Alan Seymour:

His major works are Swamp Creature (1955-56), The One Day of the Year (1958), The Gaiety of Nations, the first anti-Vietnam war play, (1965), A Break in the Music (1966), The Pope and the Pill (1968), The Shattering (1973), The Float (1980),Frost in May (1982), The House of Eliott (1991), Anglia’s Tales of the Unexpected (1979-88). He also wrote novels like The Coming Self-Destruction of the United States (1969) which raised concerns over racial prejudices. Apart from his plays in Britain Alan’s popularity also rests on the television adaptation of L. P Hartley’s Eustace and Hilda and Antonio White’s Frost in May and John Masefield’s The Box of Delight. He was awarded Order of Australia and many other awards. His last project which remained incomplete was a novel based on the life of Yagan, an indigenous Australian warrior who played crucial role in resisting the British colonial settlement in Western Australia.

Alan Seymour was a gay. His partner Ron Baddeley was a Royal Australian Air  Force war veteran who after the war chose to become a teacher. They lived together for fifty- four years and eight months till Baddeley’s demise in 2003. Later in life, Alan suffered from Alzheimer and lived in Elizabeth Bay, a care facility for elderly people. Alan died on 23 March, 2015.

Background of the Play: 

One afternoon in 1955 on the Anzac day, Seymour was walking on the streets of suburb of Summer Hill. He found drunk and exhausted men laying on the streets after the Anzac day celebrations and also the dawn service and morning march. He says “As long as men fuzzily exchanged rich, romantic memories with wartime colleagues, so long, it seemed to me, would any sensible analysis of the individual engagements of those wars, and indeed of war itself, be delayed. Why not a play about the essential hollowness of the Anzac Day maunderings?i This became the reason for him to create the widely known play, The One Day of the Year.

However, Seymour though was unhappy the way Anzac day was celebrated but to his surprise he says “I found myself liking, almost loving, the older generation, represented in the play…The sheer persistence of their long and scruffy … battle to cope with the overwhelming facts of the life of this century (war – depression – war) forced me to respect them”.

Alan wrote the play for a playwriting competition in 1958 and it was to be performed at the inaugural Adelaide festival in 1960. However, it was withdrawn from the festival as the executive committee felt that the play’s content is controversial it criticizes the Anzac Day tradition. Thus, the play was initially banned in 1960. This created a controversy and several months later an amateur theatre group decided to perform it in Adelaide. After its success it went to Sydney and was later performed in various other countries. Later, its television adaptations came out and it successfully performed on the stage.

One Day of the Year is a three act play that deals with the war memorial day called Anzac day which is celebrated in Australia and New Zealand. It is one of the significant days that commemorate the wars and lives of the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for their nation. Taking the war Memorial Day as a broader frame of reference the play critiques the various issues of the Australian society more importantly the conflict between the old and modern generation’s ideas about Anzac day. Further, it raises the questions about the over- romanticizing of the day and brings out the effects of war on the returned soldiers.

What is ANZAC Day:

ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand and Army Corps. It is the national commemorative day for both Australia and New Zealand that is held every year on 25th of April in the memory of the brave soldiers who lost their lives or injured in the First World War. During the World War I Australia the commonwealth of Britain fought with its allies and tried to capture the Gallipoli, peninsula that forms the part of Turkey. The intention was to make route to the Black Sea and capture the capital city of Ottoman Empire, Constantinople- present day’s Istanbul. Nevertheless, the Allied lost it and Turkey won it but the war left a consciousness among the Australians, that is, the need for a national day celebration. The vacuum was filled by the ANZAC Day.

Throughout his life Alan was majorly known only for this play The One Day of the Year alone though he wrote and did many other interesting works. Once he said “In some ways it has been bit of an albatross. I’ve written 10 other plays, but none has received the recognition or made the impact of this one.” Perhaps it is the subject of the play that fascinates the audiences and readers alike throughout the world and made the play unforgettable.

Setting of the Play: The play takes places in Sydney in the year 1958. The setting is in the small working class house which has a lounge, kitchen, and bedroom.

Characters of the Play:

Alf Cook: Alf Cook is in his forties works as a lift driver but before this he served in the army and participated in the Second World War.

Dot Cook: Dot Cook is also in her forties. She is the wife of Alf Cook and mother to Hughie Cook.

Hughie Cook: Hughie Cook is a twenty year old son of Dot and Alf Cook. He studies in university.

Jan Castle: Jan Castle is a university student and girlfriend of Hughie Cook. She belongs to high class society and lives in North Shore of Sydney.

Wacka Dawson: Wacka Dawson is a friend of Dot and Alf Cook. He is the veteran of World War I and II.

Plot of the Play: 

Act-I:

Alf Cook is a working-class man who has participated in the Second World War. Right now he is disenchanted with his life as he does not like the way others treat him, merely as a lift driver. He is unhappy about his life. He thinks that he has not achieved anything in life and is still living in a small house. He even never realised his dreams to be an engineer. However, once on ANZAC day he pours out his feelings in front of his friend, Wacka, another war veteran. Alf says, “I’m a bloody Australian and I’ll always stand up for bloody Australia. That’s what I felt like sayin’ to him, bloody Pommy, you can’t say anything to em, they still think they own the bloody earth, well, they don’t own the bloody earth. The place is full of em. Isn’t it? Wacka! Isn’t it?”iii and Wacka replies in affirmative.

Act-II:

Hughie arrives home with his girlfriend, Jan, who belongs to high class society. Hughie and Jan decide to cover the ANZAC day for their university newspaper. They specifically want to focus on the end part of the celebratory day where all men are found excessively drunk. They hold distinct opinion about ANZAC day as compared to Hughie’s family. They think that it is the day of public drunkenness.

Hughie for the first time refuses to be the part of this celebration day and does not attend the dawn services with his father, Alf. He remains at home with his mother and Wacka and watches the march with them at home on television. He is torn between the two sides at one he is angry and outrageous on the display of such barbarity in the name of the Memorial Day and on the other side he feels love for his father. Hughie while talking to Jan explains “I can’t stand waste. Waste of lives, waste of men. That whole thing- Anzac – Gallipoli – was a waste. Certainly not to glorify. God, there’s been another war since then! Dozens of wars everywhere, thousands of lousy little victories and defeats to forget. But they go on and on about this one year after year, as though it really was something” This change gives rise to the conflict between father and son. He further says to Jan “This time last year, all the week before, I watched him getting worse and worse. I thought I  won’t go. I won’t observe it any more. But I did. When it came to the point I did. Well, that was the last time. This time I’m going to celebrate Anzac day my way, with my feelings, my photos from my camera, on paper, in print. Even if it rubbishes absolutely and completely all I’ve been brought up on, that’s what I’m going to dov… All that old eyewash about national character’s a thing of the past. Australians are this, Australians are that, Australians make the greatest soldiers, the best fighters, it’s all rubbish…

In the evening of the day, Dot and Wacka are waiting for Alf. Wacka is asked to talk about the first Anzac Day. He says “Soon we was all dug in, up and down them hills. We stayed there in the stinkin’ heat with the stinkin’ flies ‘n’ the bully beef ‘n’ dysentery and sometimes the Turk trenches not ten yards away – we stayed there nine months. Then we pulled out, the whole bang lot of us… When we went in there we was nobody. When we come out we was famous. Anzacs, Ballyhoo. Photos in the papers. Famous. Not worth a crumpet.

Hughie returns home and narrates his experiences of the day and how he took photos of the men. He says “Everywhere you look – every suburb you go through – and we went through them today – every pub, every street – all over this damned country today men got rotten. This is THE day”viii. Wacka replies “That’s not all it is… Can’t you let then enjoy it? You don’t have to agree. But they’ve got a right to their feelings”. Hughie replies to Wacka and says “you’ve been brought up on the speeches. They say what it’s officially meant to be. I’ve been looking at what it is. As far as I’m concerned, that‘s all it is, A great big meaningless booze-up. Nothing more”

Alf returns home drunk and narrates his day’s experiences. This makes Hughie angry and then an argument ensues between the parents and son over the Anzac Day celebration. Finally the mother, Dot, tells Hughie “Hughie! Hughie, listen to me. Hughie!..I want you to know one thing. You going to publish that article?… Because if you are and your father sees it, it’s the finish, Hughie. You can pack your bags and leave. I mean it. Right?

Act-III:

After many days of the ANZAC day, Dot is present in the lounge Hughie comes and shows the newspaper to his mother. Hughie had an argument with Jan about the article. Dot wants her husband and son to forget about the argument and make up. Alf sees the newspaper and gets enraged and the argument begins between them once again. However, Hughie expresses his feelings what he feels about his father. He says, “You’ve got to know, you’d  better know once and for all how I feel. That’s your famous old diggers to me. Great, stupid, drunken…”xi then Alf slaps Hughie and then Dot also joins the argument and explains how do they feel about the ANZAC and what it means to them. She says “Didn’t cost yr old man to go out in a blaze of glory. It’s the ones like Wacka who come back knocked up and get nothin’, just nothin’ and go on without a word the resta their lives, there the ones who give their all.

There appears Jan and presents her point of view or rather of her society about ANZAC day. According to her, her father has also participated in the Wars but he does not show it off like Alf. She points out the differences in class and attitude towards the day.  Later Hughie tells his parents that he had an argument with Jan as he did not want to publish the article but later went ahead with the decision to publish it. He apologizes to Alf and Alf tells them that he did not get the executive job.

Later Hughie gradually understands his parents’ point of view more importantly of his father’s. Hughie gets into an argument with Jan and ends their relationship. Hughie also confesses his parents that how he feels about them. He says, “I want you to know how we stand. I don’t respect what you all do on that day. I never will. And I don’t respect what it stands for. But now I respect the way you feel about it”xiii Alf and Dot tells Hughie that they both want him to continue his education which Alf could not have. On this note Wacka says “Your boy’s growing up. You’ve got to face that. He’s got the right to think and say what he likes. Any fightin’ we ever did, you’n’ me, in any wars, it was to give him that right. And if we don’t agree with what he thinks – well, it’s his world. We’ve had it. He’s got it all ahead of him”xiv

Major Themes in the Play:

Father and Son’s Conflict:

The play is not merely a presentation of the celebration or commentary on the celebration of ANZAC day. It is a play about two individuals who holds distinct opinions about the Memorial Day and who belongs to two different generations of ideas, situations and opportunities. More importantly, the two individuals belong to the same family and holds a very significant relationship too, that is of father, Alf and son, Hughie.

Hughie used to be part of the celebration till recently but suddenly develops a disliking towards the day. In this play a son questions his father about the validity of the ANZAC day. His father finds it strange to accept the sudden change in his son’s attitude whereas the mother tries to hold the family together. The close family friend, Wacka who has survived the wars recollects his own experiences of the trauma. Further, Jan, Hughie’s girlfriend as a character not only presents the opinions of an outsider but also of a distinct class.

Nevertheless, it’s a conflict between tradition and modernity which is explained by drawing a contrast between the parents’ attitude towards the day and of their son’s. Alf, the father, values ANZAC day as he was also once served in Army and moreover, he also enjoys drinking on that day. He says “I’m a bloody Australian, mate, and it’s because I’m a bloody Australia that I’m getting’ on the grog. It’s Anzac Day this week, that’s my day, that’s the old diggers day.” But his son questions the fundamental idea of the day’s celebration. He says “Do you know what you’re even celebrating today? Do you? Do you even know what it all meant?xv” According to Hughie ANZAC day comes to mean the day of drinking. He says, “No, Dad. You started it…you dragged me by the hand through mobs of them like this- just exactly like this. That’s all I ever saw on Anzac Day, every year, year after year, a screaming tribe of great, stupid, drunken no-hopers”

Seymour has also commented on the changing relationships and conflictual values between the two generations. He said “Australia is going through a transitional phase, and young Hughie, the university student of this play, sums up the new generation’s distaste for old customs and new institutions when he attacks his father about Anzac Day, which Hughie believes has become a ‘boozy, meaningless ritual’. The conflict which breaks out could happen in any family, between any father and son; the disagreement over Anzac Day crystallising the conflict between two generations.”

Jonathan Bollen et al say “The conflict between father and son is physically enacted at the climax of the play (see figure 8.1). Alf hits Hughie—“backhand[ing] his son viciously across the face”—for disrespecting the exservicemen who march on Anzac Day: “That’s men like my father he’s talking about”, exclaims Alf to his wife in justifying his violence (Seymour 1961: 42).”

The play reveals different levels of understanding of the day or any other special day of a country. In other words the play presents to the readers how meanings of any special day or days of national importance changes with the changing time and generations. The playwright through the three significant characters, that is, Alf, Hughie and Jan gives distinct opinions of the day In other words, different people or generations or class holds different meaning of the day.

Summary 

In this module we have discussed about the Australian play, The One Day of the Year by Alan Seymour. Further, you came to know about Alan’s works, background of the play, ANZAC day, setting, characters, plot and major theme of the play.

References

• Bollen, Jonathan et al. Men at Play: Masculinities in Australian Theatre since the 1950s. Netherlands: Rodopi, 2008.
• Cryle, Mark (2016). Making  ‘the One Day of  the  Year’: a Genealogy  of Anzac Day to  1918 PhD Thesis, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland. doi:10.14264/uql.2016.933 https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:379486
• McEvoy, Marc. One Day of the Year that changed writer Alan Seymour’s. The Sunday Morning Herald, 25th March, 2015
• http://www.smh.com.au/comment/obituaries/one-day-of-the-year-that-changed-writer-alan- seymours-life-20150323-1m67qx.html
• Stringer, Jenny (ed.) Oxford Companion to Twentieth Century English Literature. UK:OUP, 1996.
• Tucker, Kaye. “Alan Seymour: A Critical Voice against Australian Militarism” 21st April, 2015. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/04/21/obit-a21.html
• Veronica Kelly (ed.) Our Australian Theatre in the 1990s. US: Rodopi, 1998