Rusty Bugles

Rusty Bugles was a controversial Australian play written by Sumner Locke Elliott in 1948. It toured extensively throughout Australia between 1948–1949 and was threatened with closure by the New South Wales Chief Secretary's Office for obscenity.

It was first produced by Doris Fitton and Sydney's Independent Theatre company on 14 October 1948, and advertised as an "army comedy documentary".^[1] The announcement of its ban was made by J. M. Baddeley, Chief Secretary and acting Premier of New South Wales, on 22 October^[2] but after initially defying the ban, Doris Fitton avoided a forced closure by commissioning a rewrite from the author.^[3]

The Independent Theatre took the play, after an unprecedented 20-week run in New South Wales, to reopen The King's Theatre, Melbourne.^[4] Meanwhile, another company was playing "Rusty Bugles" at Killara, New South Wales, so it was the first Australian play to run simultaneously in two states.^[5] The words that were the subject of the ban gradually reappeared; no legal action was ever taken, though rewrites were demanded in different states.^[6]

At the end of its record six-month run in Melbourne, the production transferred to Adelaide, then returned to Sydney at The Tatler. But now critics were writing that it was being played for laughs, with the swearing self-conscious rather than part of the patois.^[7]

The publisher of the play, Currency Press, quotes Elliott as saying that Rusty Bugles was 'a documentary... Not strictly a play... it has no plot in the accepted sense'. Elliott did not foresee that shortly after this, the genre of the theatre of the absurd would be established as a 'legitimate' dramatic form where plot and the delineation of character are less important than the insight offered into the implicit drama of most human interactions.^[8]

• Des Nolan ("Gig") – John Kingsmill
• Vic Richards – Ivor Bromley-Smith
• Sergeant Brooks – Sidney Chambers
• Rod Carsen – Ronald Frazer
• Andy Edwards ("The Little Corporal") – Robert Crome
• Otford ("Ot") – Alistair Roberts
• Mac – Frank O'Donnell
• Ollie – John Unicomb
• Chris – Kevin Healy
• "Darky" McClure – Lloyd Berrell
• "Keghead" Stephens – Ralph Peterson
• Corporal – doubled
• Ken Falcon ("Dean Maitland") – Michael Barnes
• First Private – Jack Wilkinson
• Second Private – James Lyons
• Bill Hendry (YMCA Sergeant) – Frank Curtain
• Private – Peter Hartland
• Jack Turner (Sigs Corporal) – doubled
• Sigs Private – doubled
• Sammy Kuhn – Kenneth Colbert

The play was adapted for TV by the ABC in 1965 and then later in 1981.^[9] Both versions were directed by Alan Burke who had directed the stage play in 1949.^[10]

The play was also adapted by the ABC for radio in 1965.^[11]

• List of television plays broadcast on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (1960s)

• Rusty Bugles various Australian production details at AusStage
• Details of 1965 ABC TV production at AusStage
• Rusty Bugles at IMDb
• Rusty Bugles at AustLit