There are Three Sisters is a 1939 Australian radio play by Maxwell Dunn.
 Wireless Weekly 9 Aug 1939 | |
| Genre | drama play |
|---|---|
| Running time | 60 mins |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Language(s) | English |
| Syndicates | ABC |
| Written by | Maxwell Dunn |
| Original release | 23 February 1939 |
Dunn wrote the play on the train from Adelaide to Perth. It was very successful and within a year had been produced eight times in different countries.[1]
The play was produced again in 1940, 1943,[2] 1945 and 1949.[3]
A critic from Wireless Weekly called it "original" with "nice construction. I particularly admired the well-timed anti-climax... a very interesting play, with...an overdose of explanatory dialogue, the result of the playwright’s anxiety to leave listeners in no doubt as to his characters’ actions. This was evidenced particularly in the dining-car sequences."[4]
Premise
editAccording to Wireless Weekly "Mr. Dunn presents nothing less than a theory why some people die violently in accidents and why others do not. It is a bold and absorbing piece of metaphysical speculation, given through the story of a tragic train journey from Adelaide towards Perth. One by one we meet the occupants of Car 17—a young honeymoon couple, an old lady going to meet her son, a schoolboy, a judge, a doctor, a professional scoundrel, and so on. The crash comes in a highly dramatic moment as most of them are gathered in a sing-song around the train’s lounge room piano; and the Westland express hurtles to destruction in a washaway. Six out of the ten occupants are killed. On what principle does Death select his victims? That is the intriguing question."[5]
References
edit- ^ "Two New Real Life Plays This Week", ABC weekly, Sydney: ABC, 29 June 1940, retrieved 4 February 2024 – via Trove
- ^ "Coming on the air", ABC weekly, Sydney: ABC, 30 October 1943, nla.obj-1316242726, retrieved 4 February 2024 – via Trove
- ^ "March 18 A.B.C. Programmes", ABC weekly, Sydney: ABC, 12 March 1949, retrieved 4 February 2024 – via Trove
- ^ "Best and Worst of the Week Say. Schnabel Leaves Impress On Sydney Quartet", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal, Sydney: Wireless Press, August 23, 1939, retrieved 4 February 2024 – via Trove
- ^ "THURSDAY ... FEBRUARY 23", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal, Sydney: Wireless Press, February 24, 1939, retrieved 4 February 2024 – via Trove
External links
edit- There are Three Sisters at Ausstage