Ric Throssell (1922–1999) was born in Western Australia, the only child of writer Katharine Susannah Prichard and Captain Hugo Throssell, V.C. After education at Wesley College he saw war service in New Guinea during World War II. In 1943 he joined the Department of External Affairs.
He was a leading advocate and activist for Australian theatre from 1945 to 1966, especially through the Canberra Repertory Society where he was an actor, producer and writer. Throssell wrote twenty-six plays, most of which have been widely performed, particularly The Day Before Tomorrow. He published a biography of his mother, Wild weeds and wind flowers (1975) and an autobiography My father's son (1989), and has edited two collections of his mother's writings Straight left (1982) and Tribute: selected stories of Katharine Susannah Prichard (1988).
As a diplomat, however, his career was greatly hindered by security classification problems resulting from his mother's membership of the Communist Party although no case was established against him.
| THE DAY BEFORE TOMORROW by Ric Throssell |
