# Awake My Love

Awake My Love is a 1947 Australian stage play by Max Afford. The Sydney Morning Herald called it "a significant milestone in Australian drama."

## Premise

The story of Colonel William Light, Surveyor General of South Australia in 1836. It includes his feud with Governor Hindmarsh and his romance with Linda Manners.

## Colonel Light - The Founder

Afford orginally wrote the play under the title William Light - the Founder. In July 1936 it won first prize in a playwriting competition sponsorted by the Advertiser to celebrate the centenary of Adelaide. It was decided to present the play in Adelaide in November 1936.
The play was well received and helped launch Afford's career as a dramatist with the ABC (soon after he was signed by the ABC as a staff writer for the newly-formed Federal Play Department).
During the making of the play Max Afford met his future wife, Thelma, who was designing costumes.

### Reception

The Adelaide News wrote " In form the production is not so much a constructed play as a loosely connected series of episodes, concerning themselves mainly with the struggle of Col. Light with the authorities on the subject of the suitability or otherwise of the site he had selected for the capital city. Each of these episodes is more or less complete, dramatically within it self, and the production as a whole features the type of technique with which we have become familiar in such forms as Noel Coward's "Cavalcade"."
The Advertiser called it "a triumph".
The Bulletin called it "history... skilfully embroidered, necessarily sad."

### Radio adaptation

The play was adapted into a 1936 radio play called Genesis. This play only went for ten minutes.

## Awake My Love

Afford subsequently rewrote the play and gave it a new title, Awake My Love. It was given a reading at Sydney's Independent Theatre on 2 March 1947. That theatre then gave it a production in September of the same year.
Paul O'Loughlin, who was head of drama at the ABC, made his Sydney stage debut as Colonel Light. Henry Krips wrote the music. It was the only Australian play in the National Theatre Movement Rally.

### Reception

The Sydney Morning Herald called the play:
   A significant milestone for Australian drama. It underlines the courage and vision of Doris Fitton, and proves that Max Afford is a dramatist of growing stature with a true artist's desire to conquer new kingdoms... It re-creates the jealousies, cross-purposes, and dreams of the period, and moves with some unsteadiness, but much true drama, towards the climax of Light's death from consumption... The author and producer of this play both deserve warm compliment from lovers of the theatre for a bold advancing of Australian standards.
The Daily Telegraph wrote "The play is uneven in texture, relying too often upon explanation and recapitulation. After Act 1, the thinness of Act 2 is evident: and Act 3 is little more than a duologue."
The Catholic Weekly felt "Afford's characterisation of Colonel Light and Linda Manners is quite convincing" but felt that of Hindmarsh "is rather shallow and, since he is important as Light's chief protagonist, the quarrel over the I site of Adelaide seems to be rather unreal." The critic believed "the play cannot be considered as a serious contribution to the field of really historical drama, but the general competency of the handling of action, crises and some of the characterisation in the play make it equal to the contemporary typo of play that many commercial theatres overseas are at present producing."
"There appears a feeling, of surrender of self for the personality of the character represented that is rare in Australian theatre," wrote the Sydney Jewish News.
The Bulletin felt "the romance is of the sentimental stuff from which fillums are made, whereas the clash between Light and Hindmarsh is... dramatic dynamite... Hindmarsh dominates the play, even though he appears only twice. Powerful, venomous and stubborn, he electrifies the piece the moment he walks on the stage. From a dramatic viewpoint he is the perfect antagonist for Light."
Leslie Rees felt the scenes between Light and Hindmarsh were "lively drama" but in those involving the ficititous love story "Afford’s touch was not so sure—he employed clichés of quotation and trite phrases, though the development was real and tender enough. Light as a character was seen consistently in his more negative moments, yet by and large he revealed the positive spirit of a visionary."

## Radio adaptations

Awake My Love was adapted for ABC radio in November 1947 (after the performance of the play at the Independent) and 1959.
The 1947 production was directed by Paul O'Loughlin and starred Peter Finch as Light. It co starred Diana Perryman, repeating her stage performance. This production was repeated in 1948.

### Cast of 1947 Production

* Peter Finch as Colonel Light
* Enid Lorimer as Henry Manners
* Diana Perryman as Linda
* Kevin Brennan as Governor Hindmarsh
* Charles McCallum as George Stevenson
* Grant Taylor as Travers Finney
* Reginald Collins as Charles Orchard