Brumby Innes, and Bid me to love

by Katharine Susannah Prichard

Two plays of 1927. Brumby Innes deals with the turbulent relations between the sexes and the races in NW Australia (3 acts, 9 men, 6 women), and Bid Me to Love with 'advanced' ideas on marriage (3 acts, 4 men, 4 women, children).

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1929

About the author

Katharine Susannah Prichard was born in Levuka, Fiji in 1883, and spent her childhood in Launceston, Tasmania, before moving to Melbourne, where she won a scholarship to South Melbourne College. Her father, Tom Prichard, was editor of the Melbourne Sun newspaper. She worked as a governess and journalist in Victoria then travelled to England in 1908. Her first novel, The Pioneers (1915), won the Hodder & Stoughton All Empire Literature Prize. After her return to Australia, the romance Windlestraws and her first novel of a mining community, Black Opal were published.

Prichard moved with her husband, war hero Hugo "Jim" Throssell, VC, to Greenmount, Western Australia, in 1920 and lived at 11 Old York Road for much of the rest of her life. She wrote most of her novels and stories in a self-contained weatherboard workroom near the house. In her personal life she always referred to herself as Mrs Hugo Throssell. She had one son, Ric Throssell, later a diplomat and writer.

Reviews

[Carmen Tudor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was unable to put this play down once I'd begun. Admittedly, it's depressing and leaves unpleasant images, but its representation of the non-indigenous, '20s north-western stockmen acknowledges at least some of the shocking mistreatment of the local peoples. While the play isn't without issues, it's an interesting and thought-provoking read.

[Declan Melia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Considering how incredibly good this is, it's surprising to see this isn't more well read (there are only two 'reviews' below.) A bit of a historical curio, this play was written at some time in the 1920's by one of the founding members of the Australian Communist Party and reads remarkably ahead of its time. Social realism to the point of being dark, the Australia the play describes is almost unbearably bleak. The first thing we learn about the protagonist and title character is that he is violent, drunk and a rapist and Pritchard does nothing to endear us to him from there. Contemptuous of law and morality, Brumby Innes steals, insults and violently assaults his way through the play, in fact there is only one female character he doesn't rape. There is no suggestion of moral comeuppance or moral resolution, he comes out of the play victorious, all of his more noble competitors worse off. What are we to make of this? How are we supposed to feel without a neat ethical resolution? What conclusions can we draw about reality when the bad guys win? Perhaps Brumby Innes is an allegory of European settlement in Australia or perhaps only aspects of it. More importantly, why isn't this play more widely read? Over three acts and forty pages it definitely raised a lot of questions for me and I've found myself revisiting that dust-choked, rotting farm house again and again after putting it down.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oops, I forgot to review this on my blog, will do that soon...

[Ely · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh, wasn't anything special. This Australian Lit unit I'm doing isn't going very well so far...