Romeril, John (Henry) 1945-

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ROMERIL, John (Henry) 1945-

PERSONAL:

Born October 26, 1945, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Education: Monash University, B.A. hons., 1970.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—Bryson Agency Australia Pty. Ltd., P.O. Box 226, Flinders Lane, Melbourne, Australia 8009; fax: 03-9621-2788.

CAREER:

Australian Performing Group, Melbourne, founding member, 1970—; Western Australian Institute of Technology, Bentley, 1977; University of Newcastle, New South Wales, 1978; Jigsaw Theatre Company, Canberra, 1980; Troupe Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, 1981; Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia, 1984; Magpie, Adelaide, 1985; National University of Singapore, Singapore, 1986-87. Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne, Matthew J. Cody artist-in-residence, 1985; Australian National Playwrights Centre, chair, 1998.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Australian Council for the Arts travel grant, 1972; Canada-Australia Literary Award, 1976; Victorian Government Drama fellowship, 1988; Australian Artists Creative Fellowship, 1993-96; Golden Awgie, 2002, for One Night the Moon; Best Television Original, 2002, for One Night the Moon.

WRITINGS:

(With Rachel Perkins) One Night the Moon (screenplay), MusicArtsDance Film (Australia), 2002.

PLAYS

A Nameless Concern, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1968.

The Kitchen Table (produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1968), in Two Plays, Kosmos (Clayton, Australia), 1971.

(With John Minter) Scene One, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1969.

The Man from Chicago, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1969.

The American Independence Hour, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1969.

Mr. Big, the Big, Big Pig, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1969.

I Don't Know Who to Feel Sorry For (produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1969), Currency Press (Sydney, Australia), 1973, Methuen (London, England), 1975.

Chicago Chicago (produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1970), Penguin Australia (Melbourne, Australia), 1970, published in Plays of the 60s, Currency Press (Sydney, Australia), 1998.

200 Years, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1970.

Dr. Karl's Kure, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1970.

(With Jack Hibberd) Marvelous Melbourne, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1970.

The Magnetic Martian, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1971.

The Whatever Happened to Realism, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1971.

Rearguard Action, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1971.

Mrs. Thally F, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1971.

(With Bill and Lorna Hannan) Hackett Gets Ahead, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1972.

He Can Swagger Sitting Down, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1972.

Bastardy (produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1972), Yackandandah Playscripts (Montmorency, Australia), 1982.

The Earth, Air, Fire and Water Show, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1972.

(With Tim Robertson) A Night in Rio and Other Bummerz, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1973.

(With Tim Robertson) Waltzing Matilda: A National Pantomime with Tomato Sauce (produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1974), Yackandandah Playscripts (Montmorency, Australia), 1984.

The Floating World (produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1974), Currency Press (Sydney, Australia), 1975, Methuen (London, England), 1976, revised edition, Currency Press (Sydney, Australia), 1982.

The Golden Holden Show, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1975.

(With John Timlin) Dudders, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1976.

The Radio-Active Horror Show, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1976.

The Accidental Poke, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1977.

Mickey's Moomba, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1979.

Carboni, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1980.

700,000, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1980.

Samizdat, produced in Adelaide, Australia, 1981.

Centenary Dance, produced in Adelaide, Australia, 1984.

The Kelly Dance (produced in Adelaide, Australia, 1984), Yackandandah Playscripts (Montmorency, Australia), 1986.

Definitely Not the Last (produced in Adelaide, 1985), Yackandandah Playscripts (Montmorency, Australia), 1989.

(With music by Alan John) Jonah (adaptation of the novel by Louis Stone), produced in Sydney, Australia, 1985, revised version produced in Adelaide, Australia, 1991.

(With Jennifer Hill and Chris Anastassiades) Legends (produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1985), Yackandandah Playscripts (Montmorency, Australia), 1986.

Koori Radio, produced in Hobart, Australia, 1987.

(And adaptor) The Imposter, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1987.

Top End, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1988.

(With Tim Robertson and Don Watson) History of Australia, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1989.

Lost Weekend, produced in Adelaide, Australia, 1989.

(And adaptor) Black Cargo, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1991.

The Reading Boy, produced in Adelaide, Australia, 1991.

Working Out, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1991.

Bring Down the House, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1992.

Doing the Block, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 1993.

Hanoi-Melbourne, produced in Hanoi, Vietnam, 1995.

Red Sun Red Earth, produced in Adelaide, Australia and Nago City, 1996.

(With music by Peter Neville) Love Suicides, produced in Melbourne, Australia, and Canberra, Australia, 1997.

Kate 'n' Shiner, produced in Perth, Australia, 1998.

XPO: The Human Factor, produced in Brisbane, Australia, 1998.

Acronetic, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 2000.

Miss Tanaka, produced in Melbourne, Australia, 2001.

Has also written numerous screenplays, including Nothing Like Experience, Bonjourn Balwyn, and Mr. Steam and Dry, and television plays, including The Best of Mates, Charley the Chequer Cab Kid, and Everything's a Hustle.

SIDELIGHTS:

Australia's most prolific playwright, John Romeril has suffered from critical neglect and many of his plays remain unpublished. Indeed, many of his plays are occasional pieces, performed by local or regional companies, schools, or ad hoc groups brought together for a single performance. Romeril emerged in the 1960s as one of Australia's "New Wave" of playwrights, and he worked primarily through Melbourne's Australian Performing Group, a radical cooperative which used creative consensus to find a distinctly Australian populist approach to mostly political material. Romeril has stuck closest to this ideal, and his work continues to explore Australian politics from a radical perspective. In The Floating World he takes a look at Australian xenophobia. When protagonist Les Harding takes a journey to Japan, he seems simply bigoted at first, but gradually the play uncovers his horrifying memories of being a prisoner of war in Thailand and Burma during World War II. Koori Radio confronts the possible genocide of Aboriginal peoples in one of Australia's states. And Lost Weekend provides an allegorical take on Australia's predicament, epitomized by a struggle between a narrow-minded trade unionist and an aristocratic grazier forced to open his estate to tourists in order to survive. While retaining his strong commitment to political activism through experimental theater, Romeril has also revealed a deft touch and an ability to shift styles that has allowed him to survive long after many 1960s radicals have dropped by the wayside.