From the Archives, 1936: Anti-Nazi play banned

(First published in the Sydney Morning Herald on July 2, 1936)

Brown Shirts on Stage.

DRAMATIC AND BRUTAL.

Clifford Odet's two plays, "Till the Day I Die" and "Waiting for Lefty," which have caused keen discussion in other countries, were presented by the New Theatre League at the Savoy Theatre last night to a lively audience.

 Truck advertising the New Theatre’s production of anti-fascist play “Till the Day I Die” in Sydney, circa September 1941. The ban on the play had been recently lifted.

"Till the Day I Die" is an exposure of Nazi treatment of the enemies of the Hitlerite State. It scarcely bothers to individualise character, so anxious is the author to drive home his hatred of men who can barbarically torture a worker in order to make him "squeal" on his associates, and who do not stop at mean tricks to misrepresent him as a traitor. In impugning brutality, the author uses a brutal method.

The classical Greek dramatists allowed no physical action on the stage; Odett reverses that rule by insisting on every callousness and indignity of torture being represented to the audience. Quite frankly, he aims to shock the nerves as well as the emotions. But there is taut, concentrated dramatic energy in the writing, as well as noise and terror. Here and there, the attack on the Nazis becomes cheap, but mostly it grips even the unbiassed observer.

The play, which is frankly propagandist, was well acted and would have been better produced had the company known their stage conditions better.

"Waiting for Lefty," a piece dealing with a trade-union strike, in which the "audience"
took a vociferous part, was not so well presented.

ANTI-NAZI PLAY.

Police Take Notes.

Playwright Clifford Odets, London, June 13, 1938Credit:Keystone

(July 23, 1936)

The play "Till the Day I Die," dealing with the suppression of Communism by the Nazis, was presented yesterday evening at the Savoy Theatre by the New Theatre League Players, in spite of police orders that it must be stopped.

Police stated that when the play was first advertised, a protest was lodged on the grounds that the play gave a false impression of German conditions. It is understood that an undertaking was given that the play would not be produced.

Last night Inspector Sharples and police from the Phillip-street station went to the Savoy Theatre. Bills Indicated that the play would be given. A conference was held.

The Savoy Theatre, in Bligh Street, Sydney in May 1939. Credit:Gordon Short

It was announced that "Till the Day I Die" would not be given, but that another play would take its place. However, the police allege that the play was staged in spite of the announcement.

Police were present throughout the production, and a shorthand writer took a transcript
of the players' parts, with a view to deciding further action.

BANNED PLAY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD.
(July 27, 1936)
Sir,-On behalf of the organisation to which I belong, may I crave a little of your valuable space in which to voice a protest against the action of the Chief Secretary in banning a performance of Clifford Odet's play, "Till the Day I Die," In the Savoy Theatre on Wednesday night? From the various Press reports, it appears that the Chief Secretary banned this performance in response to a request from the German Consul, without even having read the script of the play. Surely that is carrying international courtesy a little too far?

We understand, of course, that the present German Government may be a little more sensitive to criticism than a democratic Government would be; for it is a common trouble with dictatorships that they can retain their power only by the constant suppression of criticism. However, that is merely unfortunate for the German Government – or the Italian Government, or the Finnish Government, or whatever Government it is that happens to be affected when we, in a democratic community, claim the right to read a book or to see a play which deals with current world events.

The German Consul Dr Rudolph Asmis with his family arriving in Sydney, 10 October 1932.Credit:Staff photographer

If we contemplate the limits of cultural futility to which we should be confined, if we set ourselves never to allow art to tread on anybody's corns, we find ourselves forced to recognise that international courtesy has little place in art. Like the minor insincerities of social life, it may be an excellent lubricant in foreign politics, but if we apply it to that inward, private life of a nation which we call its art and culture, it becomes irksome and intolerable.

We feel, however, not only that the Chief Secretary has been, in this instance, more zealous in international courtesy than is healthy for the theatre as a virile art form; we would seriously question whether those who framed section 27 of the Theatres and Public Halls Act had any intention that "the preservation of good manners and decorum" should mean anything more than the preservation of good manners and decorum within the theatre concerned. It seems clear that there was no question of any lack of good manners and decorum among the audience or the players on the night in question. Hence, we submit, the power conferred on the Chief Secretary under section 27 of the Act, has, in this instance, been misused.

I am, etc.,
G. W. R. SOUTHERN,
Secretary, the Writers' League.
Sydney, July 24.

BAN ON PLAY LIFTED
(August 8, 1941)

"Till the Day I Die"
The Chief Secretary, Mr Baddeley, announced yesterday that he had decided to remove the ban on the presentation of Clifford Odet's anti-Nazi play, "Till the Day I Die".

"In coming to the decision," the Minister said, "I had in mind the change from the conditions which existed when the ban was imposed. Then (1936) we were at peace, and a very strong protest had been made by the Consul-General for Germany against public performances of this powerful anti-Nazi play.

"Although at that period Germany was technically at least a friendly power, there were already conditions of tension and strain which my department did not desire to aggravate.

"I should like to point out that the Commonwealth censorship regulations empower the Commonwealth to prohibit the importation of any film that is likely to give offence to the people of a friendly nation. This does not now concern us with "Till the Day I Die," which depicts the brutality and callousness of the Nazis to human suffering."

The secretary of the New Theatre, Miss Freda Lewis, said yesterday that the Government's decision to lift the ban showed the correctness of the theatre's policy in presenting the play
for two years while the ban was in operation.

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