Denise Varney

Radical Visions 1968-2008 : The Impact of the Sixties on Australian Drama : 13 Denise Varney

Radical Visions 1968-2008: The Impact of the Sixties on Australian Drama is about a generation of Australian playwrights who came of age in the sixties. This important book shows how international trends in youth radicalism and cultural change at the time contributed to the rise of interest in alternative theatre and drama in a number of locations. It follows the career of Australia's major playwrights - Alma De Groen, Jenny Kemp, Richard Murphet, John Romeril, Stephen Sewell and David Williamson - whose early plays were first performed at La Mama and the Pram Factory theatres in Melbourne in the sixties and seventies and who continue to make new work.

The book's dual purpose is to examine the impact of the sixties on playwriting and update the scholarship on the contemporary works with close readings of the plays of the nineties and the first decade of the twenty-first century. By analysing the recent plays, the book traces the continuing impact of left wing politics and cultural change on Australian theatre and society.