Drive a Hard Bargain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Drive a Hard Bargain | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Oriel Gray |
| Date premiered | October 1957 |
| Place premiered | Ballarat Civic Hall, Ballarat |
| Original language | English |
Drive a Hard Bargain is a 1957 Australian play by Oriel Gray.
It won a one act play competition in 1957 by the South Street Society.[1] Adjudicator Lindsay Browne of the Sydney Morning Herald called it "a delight to read for the vivacity of the plot, dialogue, Aussie humour and shrewd categorisation."[2] The play, along with two others, was presented in 1957 at South Street.[3]
The play was also filmed for Australian television by the ABC in 1964.
Leslie Rees called it "a very popular one-acter... As in other Oriel Gray plays, there was here a lack of sufficient dramatic clash to warm a potentially dramatic situation—but artifices of character and vivacity of bush dialogue carried the day for this sprightly modern moralityin-little."[4]
A written edition of the play was published by the Tasmanian Adult Education Board in 1958.
According to ABC Weekly, "The play is on a theme as old as literature, the Mephistophelean theme telling how the Devil in man’s disguise wanders the earth seeking to buy men’s souls. Kate Cleary, a middle-aged woman with great strength of character, runs a country pub with the help of her adopted daughter, Peggy. Peggy, a self-assured half-castc girl, is in love with a stockman. Whip."[5]
Radio adaptation
The work was adapted for Australian radio in 1958.[5]
