View source for The Invisible Circus (play)

{{Short description|Play by Sumner Locke Elliott}}
{{Infobox play
| name       = The Invisible Circus
| image      = Invisible_Circus.png
| caption    = Il Risveglio 5 Jun 1946
| writer     = [[Sumner Locke Elliott]]
| characters = Bradley McGee<br>Mona Natwick<br>Speed<br>Bette<br>Lottie Faircourte<br>Freda Chase<br>Iris Mitchell<br>Percy Kimlock<br>Mark Cornell<br>Courtney Skipton<br>Henry Melville<br>Bernard Freer<br>Mrs. Goll<br>J. B. Oliphant<br>Mr. Bullerton<br>Madam Napotelli<br>Sinclair Bullerton<br>JB Olliphant
| setting    = A commercial radio station
| premiere   = May 1946
| place      = Independent Theatre, Sydney
| orig_lang  = English
| subject    = commercial radio
| genre      = comedy farce
}}
'''''The Invisible Circus''''' is a 1946 Australian stage play by [[Sumner Locke Elliott]] set in the world of commercial radio drama, a field that Elliott knew well from many years writing for George Edwards. Elliott is represented in two characters, the idealistic Brad and the more jaded Mark.<ref>{{cite book|url= https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&filename=0&article=2376&context=theses&type=additional.|title=Sumner Locke Elliott: writing life|first=Sharon|last= Clarke|publisher=University of Woollongong|year=1995|page=289}}</ref>
==Premise==
A young and idealistic scriptwriter, Brad McGee, is introduced to commercial radio. Among the characters he meets there are the receptionist, Mona; a gag writer, Percy; a grand actress, the Duchess; another actress, Fred.
The more jaded Mark Cornell winds up leaving radio.
==Production history==
The original stage production by John Carlson ran for six weeks at the [[Independent Theatre]], Sydney in 1946.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article42526876 |title=Young Playwright Visits North |newspaper=[[The Cairns Post]] |location=Qld |date=20 September 1946 |access-date=24 March 2013 |page=5 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> There was a production in Melbourne later that year by the Little Theatre produced by [[Irene Mitchell]] starring Frank Thring.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22391521 |title=Sydney Playwright's Satire on Radio People |newspaper=[[The Argus (Melbourne)]] |issue=31,304 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=30 December 1946 |access-date=17 October 2022 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> The play was also produced in Adelaide.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article35710334 |title=Repertory To Produce "Invisible Circus" |newspaper=[[The Advertiser (Adelaide)]] |volume=89 |issue=27415 |location=South Australia |date=17 August 1946 |accessdate=6 September 2023 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
==Reception==
The ''Sydney Morning Herald'' drama critic felt the play's "strength is dialogue, its weakness construction."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17980876 |title=Play's Premiere At Independent. |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=3 June 1946 |access-date=24 March 2013 |page=5 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
The ''Bulletin'' felt it was "quick-moving and entertaining" although "a fault was the American-style smart  retorts, which have become such an ordeal to the average picture-goer. Hollywood’s newspaper or business comedies always have some disillusioned, hard-faced female (frequently with a heart of gold) ready and waiting to fire her synthesised comments on Man and the world. And so it was in ''The Invisible Circus''; the same situations, the same openings, and click, like a well-oiled machine, the disillusioned damsel delivers the wisecracks in a tired, disillusioned voice."<ref>{{Citation
| title=Satire on Radio
| journal=The Bulletin
|volume=67 |issue=3460 |date=5 Jun 1946
| location=Sydney, N.S.W
| publisher=John Haynes and J.F. Archibald
| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-550178509
| id=nla.obj-550178509
| access-date=6 September 2023
| via=Trove
}}</ref>
The ''Argus'' called it "bright and pungent entertainment."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22391521 |title=SYDNEY PLAYWRIGHT'S SATIRE ON RADIO PEOPLE |newspaper=[[The Argus (Melbourne)]] |issue=31,304 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=30 December 1946 |accessdate=6 September 2023 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
Leslie Rees thought the play "marked a great advance in originality" for Elliott's work, saying "Eschewing mawkish emotional situations, Locke-Elliott gave three acts of diverting farce-comedy." Rees added:
==Radio adaptation==
The play was adapted for radio by George Farwell in a production that aired in December 1946. The cast included [[Peter Finch]] and Elliott himself.<ref>{{Citation
| title=You Will Laugh and Laugh at Invisible Circus Witty satire on broadcasting
| journal=ABC Weekly
|volume=8 |issue=48 |date=14 December 1946
| location=Sydney
| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1322144483
| access-date=27 August 2023
| via=Trove
}}</ref>
The ABC produced the play for radio again in 1951 (directed by [[Doris Fitton]])<ref>{{Citation
| title=Radio plays for next week
| journal=ABC Weekly
|volume=13 |issue=50 |date=15 December 1951
| location=Sydney
| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1552253944
| access-date=6 September 2023
| via=Trove
}}</ref> and 1956.<ref>{{Citation
| title=Radio plays for next week
| journal=ABC Weekly
|volume=18 |issue=42 |date=20 October 1956
| location=Sydney
| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1317765891
| access-date=6 September 2023
| via=Trove
}}</ref>
===Cast of 1946 production===
*[[Neva Carr Glyn]] as Iris Mitchell<ref>{{Citation
| author1=Australian Broadcasting Commission.
| title=SATURDAY, Dee. 21
| journal=ABC weekly
| date=14 December 1946
| location=Sydney
| publisher=ABC
| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1322146633
| id=nla.obj-1322146633
| access-date=20 September 2024
| via=Trove
}} </ref>
*[[Sumner Locke Elliott]] as Bernard Free
*John Bushelle as Mark Cornell
*[[Lyndall Barbour]] as Courtney Skipton
*[[Max Osbiston]] as Bradley McGhee
*Rita Pauncefort as Lottie Faircourte
*Ann Bullen as Freda Chase
*Richard Matthews as Henry Melville
*[[Peter Finch]] as Sinclair Bullerton
*[[Pat McDonald (actress)|Pat MacDonald]] as Mona Natwick
*[[Queenie Ashton]]
*Rodney Jacobs as Percy
*[[Gwen Plumb]] as Auntie Etta
*[[Sidney Wheeler]] as JB Ollipant
*Bebe Scott as Mrs Goll
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Notes==
*{{cite journal|title=Theatre Animals: Sumner Locke Elliott's Invisible Circus|last=Pender|first= Anne|year=2016|url=https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/19464|journal=Australasian Drama Studies|issue= 68|pages= 54–74|publisher=La Trobe University|hdl=1959.11/19464 }}
==External links==
*{{AusStage|work/1125|''Invisible Circus''}}
{{Sumner Locke Elliott}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Invisible Circus, The}}
[[Category:1946 plays]]
[[Category:1940s Australian plays]]
[[Category:1946 Australian radio dramas]]
[[Category:1951 Australian radio dramas]]
[[Category:Stage plays by Sumner Locke Elliott]]
[[Category:Australian plays adapted for radio]]
[[Category:Plays set in Sydney]]