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Mrs Pretty and the Premier

"Arthur Adam’s play, “Mrs Pretty and the Premier,” was accorded an excellent reputation on its production” - Sydney Morning Herald

Premier William Power: Labor politician, ambitious, driven, oblivious to women. Mrs. Helen Pretty: glamorous widow, wealthy landowner, fatally attractive. When Power’s Compulsory Resumption of Estates Bill threatens the home and property of Mrs Pretty, she pays the Premier a visit. Throw in the Leader of the Opposition (who just happens to be Mrs Pretty’s fiancée), an aggressively conservative journalist, and watch scandals unravel.

Mrs Pretty and the Premier is an Australian comedy with style, flair, a light touch and a gorgeous pun or two. It offers an entertaining insight into the gender politics of the nineteen teens and asks gentle questions of the business of politics, the role of journalism and the validity of long-held stereotypes.

  • comedy, political satire
  • 0
  • 12 total
  • 4 female identifying, 8 male identifying
  • history
  • 16 to 18, 18+
  • young adult, adult
  • Playlab


  • MONOLOGUES
  • PRODUCTION HISTORY

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Martha

Female | 50s | under 3 minutes
Starts on page 32

EXTRACT: You can't deceive your elder sister, Willy. There's been disgraceful goings-on, there has. But you'll please remember that you can't sully the name of Power without your sister protesting. And a respectable name, thank goodness, it has always been. The Powers has always been sober folk and honest workmen. Your father was the best plumber in the whole colony, and if you did run away to the gold-diggings, instead of following his trade, and kept a store, you've lived that down since you went into politics.


Power

Male | 50s | 3 to 5 minutes
Starts on page 81

EXTRACT: Time for women, then? Time for sentiment? And then the moment I had worked for came, and lifted me into the premiership. Time to relax then? Time to become acquainted with a sex I had so long ignored? Time to learn to love? More work crowded in on me forced me back to the desk, chained me night and day. Time for women, then? Time even to understand them? Time for love? No!


Power

Male | 50s | under 3 minutes
Starts on page 20

EXTRACT: Postmaster-General. [Dictating to BRISTED] Find places for two telephone girls at Burraboo exchange. Immediate. Write PostmasterGeneral, giving names. Dix knows all about it. Telephone Vyce, see me at once. Send messenger to my house to fetch two clean handkerchiefs. Order special train for midnight for Mowlong. Reprimand porter for not supplying hot foot-warmers last trip. Bring the matter under the notice of the Chief Commissioner, and tell him from me that if his rotten railways can't provide hot foot-warmers for the Premier, I'll get a question asked about it in the House.


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SKU: PL-95 Category:

Additional information

Weight 0.5 kg

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