Plays by Patrick White

Plays by Patrick White

William Rose, November (1958)

Novels | Plays | Short Stories | Memoir | Screenplay | Essays | Music | Poems | Letters | Speeches | Interviews | Other works| Unpublished works

Patrick White’s theatrical career began with two juvenile works, performed in the 1930s but now lost, and his first professional production, also lost. Two surviving sketches were written for revues while living in London before and during WWII.

Between 1947 and 1987, White wrote eight plays for professional production in Australia, and these eight form his mature theatrical canon.

For additional unfinished theatrical material, see the Unpublished Works page.

Early Plays

See this page for information on White’s first five staged works.

  1. Bread and Butter Women (c. 1932) Unavailable
  2. The School for Friends (1937) Unavailable
  3. Peter Plover’s Party (1937) Single sketch only
  4. Return to Abyssinia (1939) Unavailable
  5. La Grande Amoureuse (1940) Single sketch only

Mature Plays

6. The Ham Funeral (1947, first produced 1961)

As his bawdy landlady prepares her husband’s funeral downstairs, and the young woman next door drifts past him in an unearthly haze, a Young Man is torn between the world of ideas and that of the real.

7. The Season at Sarsaparilla (1962)

In suburbia, three families live side by side, working through an eternal cycle: conformity and mediocrity against hope and individuality.

8. A Cheery Soul (1963)

Miss Docker is always nearby with advice, with cheer, with a helping hand. She is, in short, a suburban terrorist.

9. Night on Bald Mountain (1964)

At a mountain retreat, an ascetic professor, his alcoholic wife, and her ambitious nurse are confronted with horrifying truths, observed by an eccentric goat-herding woman.

10. Big Toys (1977)

A wealthy barrister, his promiscuous wife, and an idealistic trade union leader are caught in a delicate triangle during a major court case.

11. Signal Driver: A Morality Play for the Times (1982)

Over three decades, a couple live out a marriage wherein true connection is always out of reach, but the clowns are always nearby.

12. Netherwood (1983)

At a rundown country house, a pair of treechangers care for three mentally ill patients. When a mysterious doctor arrives, it becomes clear no-one here is quite what they seem.

13. Shepherd on the Rocks (1987)

A circus performer-turned-reverend becomes convinced he can convert the urban lecherous and perverted by way of mingling them with his small-town congregation.

Confused? Keen to use some of my content? Check out my Terms and Conditions.