Fire on the Snow
Wireless Weekly 7 June 1941
Genreverse drama play
Running time60 mins[1] (7:30 pm – 8:30 pm)
Country of originAustralia
Language(s)English
Home station2FC
SyndicatesABC
Written byDouglas Stewart
Directed byFrank Clewlow
Recording studioSydney
Original releaseJune 8, 1941 (1941-06-08)

The Fire on the Snow is a 1941 Australian verse play by Douglas Stewart about the Terra Nova Expedition to Antarctica by Robert Falcon Scott. It premiered on ABC radio on 6 June 1941 to great acclaim.[2][3]

Background

Exrtracts of the play were published in The Bulletin in 1939.[4]

Stewart said he wanted to write the play for radio "because I wanted to write a long poem about Scott, and this, short of finding a lunatic talkie director who would make a film with verse, dialogue and commentary, was the only way to do it. This commentator form, enabling the poet to speak directly to his audience and to present heroic or mythological themes that cannot very well be performed on the stage, is likely to have an increasing appeal to poets. Since the commentator is a sort of ‘chorus,’ the form of the play is very close to that of the ancient Greek dramas."[5]

Leslie Rees, the ABC's drama editor, called it the "finest-written radio play yet to have come out of Australia, and among the finest-written half-dozen from anywhere."[6]

Original Production

The original production was produced by Frank Clewlow and was to have starred Peter Finch as Scott, but he joined the army only four days before broadcast, so Frank Harvey replaced him. Clewlow decided to employ a female actor, Ida Osbourne, as narrator to contrast with the all-male cast. No copy of this original production exists.[7]

The Bulletin said "it is more important as a poem than as a play, though the natural dramatic quality of what it treats of... the powerful statement it makes on a theme of supreme and absolute human heroism, and, as well, the strong reality in the cold awe of its setting, add up to uncommonly impressive radio drama."[8]

The play's production prompted an enormous amount of correspondence.[9][10][11]

Leslie Rees responded saying he thought the production was "magnificent. I am convinced that Douglas Stewart’s dramatic chronicle justified in the event every ounce of the preliminary praise I was in the position to give it. A large number of listeners thought the same and have said so, verbally or in letters. This being so, it was bad luck that three out of four persons who wrote to the Weekly last week should have been against the play."[12]

The production was repeated in August 1941. The play was called "the radio sensation of 1941."[13]

Subsequent productions

The play has been performed on radio several times since, including a later production starring Peter Finch for Frank Clelow and one directed by Tyrone Guthrie for the BBC in 1951.[14][15]

The play was published in 1945.[16]

Original radio cast

References

  1. ↑ Australasian Radio Relay League., "SUNDAY... JUNE 8", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred Per Cent Australian Radio Journal, Sydney: Wireless Press (Vol. 36 No. 23 (June 7, 1941)), nla.obj-714909396, retrieved 23 October 2023 – via Trove
  2. ↑ Leslie Rees biography at Live Performance Hall of Fame
  3. ↑ ""THE FIRE ON THE SNOW."". The Narracoorte Herald. SA: National Library of Australia. 3 June 1941. p. 4. Retrieved 14 September 2014.
  4. ↑ "The Red Page THE WORD.", The bulletin., John Ryan Comic Collection (Specific issues)., Sydney, N.S.W: John Haynes and J.F. Archibald (Vol. 60 No. 3122 (13 Dec 1939)), 1880, ISSN 0007-4039, nla.obj-583703883, retrieved 23 October 2023 – via Trove
  5. ↑ Australasian Radio Relay League., "EXPLORER'S DIARY USED FOR DIALOGUE SCOTT PARTY'S POLAR TRAGEDY IS DRAMATISED BY SYDNEY MAN", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred Per Cent Australian Radio Journal, Sydney: Wireless Press (Vol. 36 No. 22 (May 31, 1941)), nla.obj-714902497, retrieved 23 October 2023 – via Trove
  6. ↑ Australian Broadcasting Commission. (1939), "Plays of the Air "Australia's Finest Radio Play"", ABC weekly, Sydney: ABC (Vol. 3 No. 23 (7 June 1941)), nla.obj-1313250376, retrieved 23 October 2023 – via Trove
  7. ↑ 'Playing the 20th century – episode three: The Fire On The Snow', Radio National, 2 January 2011
  8. ↑ "SUNDRY SHOWS TALKIES THEATRE MUSIC ART", The bulletin., John Ryan Comic Collection (Specific issues)., Sydney, N.S.W: John Haynes and J.F. Archibald (Vol. 62 No. 3210 (20 Aug 1941)), 1880, ISSN 0007-4039, nla.obj-635731047, retrieved 23 October 2023 – via Trove
  9. ↑ Australian Broadcasting Commission. (1939), "The Fire on the Snow", ABC weekly, Sydney: ABC (Vol. 3 No. 26 (28 June 1941)), nla.obj-1313394029, retrieved 23 October 2023 – via Trove
  10. ↑ Australian Broadcasting Commission. (1939), "A.B.C. Plays A CRITICISM AND A REPLY To the Editor", ABC weekly, Sydney: ABC (Vol. 3 No. 34 (23 August 1941)), nla.obj-1322858472, retrieved 23 October 2023 – via Trove
  11. ↑ Australian Broadcasting Commission. (1939), "The Beauty of Words", ABC weekly, Sydney: ABC (Vol. 3 No. 27 (5 July 1941)), nla.obj-1322201473, retrieved 23 October 2023 – via Trove
  12. ↑ Australian Broadcasting Commission. (1939), "Plays of the Air Reply to Critics of New Play", ABC weekly, Sydney: ABC (Vol. 3 No. 27 (5 July 1941)), nla.obj-1322203202, retrieved 23 October 2023 – via Trove
  13. ↑ Australian Broadcasting Commission. (1939), "Symposium of the Week's Main Events on the A.B.C. Network", ABC weekly, Sydney: ABC (Vol. 3 No. 32 (9 August 1941)), nla.obj-1322359679, retrieved 23 October 2023 – via Trove
  14. ↑ Richard Lane, The Golden Age of Australian Radio Drama, Melbourne University Press, 1994 p 230
  15. ↑ "THE FIRE ON THE SNOW". Barrier Daily Truth. Broken Hill, NSW: National Library of Australia. 15 August 1941. p. 4. Retrieved 14 September 2014.
  16. ↑ "Reviews of New Books". The Advertiser. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 10 February 1945. p. 4. Retrieved 14 September 2014.
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