Date of Award

1-1-2005

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Community Services, Education and Social Sciences

First Supervisor

Dr Jill Durey

Second Supervisor

Tony Nicholls

Abstract

The Other Woman is an eighty-minute stage play which asks the question: Do women really play the political game differently? A high-flying politician can't admit to a small mistake. A woman kills herself. Does her mother want justice or revenge? Banana Split is a ninety-minute comedy for two actors which investigates life after divorce, the connections between risk and reward, and the implications of doubling (or coupling). The play asks a number of questions: Is it riskier to stay or to go? Which is the more damaging to a relationship-nostalgia for a golden age or the fantasy of a perfect future? Awa’ the Crow Road is a half-hour play for radio. Two brothers are brought to Australia from Scotland, as children. Their father tells them;' We're here. We're Australian. We're not going back.' One brother goes back 10 Scotland. never to return. The other stays in Australia, never to leave. Thirty years pass. They meet again when their father is 'awa' the crow road'. The essay, Writing the end, examines selected literary and performance theory on endings from the perspective of the playwright who must write the end but avoid 'a strangulation'. Later sections of the essay use the endings of the three plays that make up the creative project, to illustrate more specific aspects of writing the end.

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