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Men Without Wives

“Not only is it an outstanding example of Australian playwriting; it is a fine piece of 'theatre' judged by any standard.” - Australian Stage

Northern Australia, the dirt, the heat, the loneliness, everything about it says that it’s man’s country. The men ‘round these parts are rougher, tougher, and louder than any other men in the country. The women up there are even more so. Ma Bates and her daughters are the only white woman for at least a hundred miles, until now.

Men Without Wives is an Australian drama where the landscape is as much a character as the cast themselves. Soaked with local slang and vernacular, this play perfectly showcases life in the Northern Territory in the early 1930s. It captures the people, the problems, the humour and the relationships between men and women, older and younger generations, different races and different ways of life.

Life in the North can be tough, but some would rather die than leave it behind.

  • drama
  • 0
  • 14 total
  • 6 female identifying, 8 male identifying
  • history
  • 18+
  • adult
  • Playlab


  • MONOLOGUES
  • PRODUCTION HISTORY

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Mrs Bates

Female | 50s | under 3 minutes
Starts on page 70

EXTRACT: But up here, you live ter learn sense... Night after night, sleeping out on the earth, looking up through yer mosquito-net at stars a lot brighter and gayer nor all yer diamonds, lying still and listening ter the soft munching of the horses and the rustling er the leaves - and sniffing the sorter smell yer can only catch outside, when yer lying on the earth in the night-time... [


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SKU: PL-99 Category:

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Weight 0.5 kg

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