Difference between revisions of "Person - Mona Brand"

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MONA ALEXIS BRAND (1915 - 2007)

Mona who styled herself "the unknown well-known playwright” was NT’s major dramatist. Between 1953 and 1984 NT produced 16 of her plays in addition to dozens of revue sketches. Mona's plays were marked by social commitment, character development and structure, and she was a skilful satirist. She usually donated her royalties to NT as it was so often broke and because she did well from overseas royalties. In addition to the stage, she wrote for radio and television plus poems and short stories published in journals and anthologies.

Her Strangers in the Land, set in Malaya and staged by NT in 1953 after a season at London Unity, was produced in Moscow and Bombay in 1955. It was followed in 1954 by Better A Millstone, based on a real-life hanging of an English teenager; Out Of Commission, a political satire on the Petrov Royal Commission, in 1955; No Strings Attached 1958 re US business self-interest in Asia; Hold The Line, a satire on ASIO and "Reds under the beds" 1960; Here Under Heaven 1961 re racial prejudice in Australia, a reworking of her first full-length play Lola written in 1947; Our "Dear" Relations a farce on the commercialisation of Mother's Day 1963; Barbara a study of the generation clash between parents and their children 1966; On Stage Vietnam a potted history using multi media 1967; Going, Going, Gone co-written with Margaret Barr (qv) re the selling off of Australia's natural resources 1968; Flying Saucery a children's show 1970; 1971 - A Race Odyssey co-written as Alexa Nugent 1971; And A Happy New Year 1976; The Pirates of Pal Mal co-written with John Upton re the dismissal of the Whitlam Government 1977; The Three Secrets an environmental pantomime for children 1980; and Here Comes Kisch! re the efforts in 1934 by Attorney-General Robert Menzies to keep anti-Nazi campaigner Egon Kisch out of Australia, at the behest of the German Ambassador. In 1965 NT staged Come All You Valiant Miners, Mona's reworking of material in Edgar Argent Ross's history of the Miners' Federation.

Born in Sydney, Mona and her brother were brought up by an aunt.

In 1940s in Melbourne, she worked in Research and Information Section of Department of Labour and National Service. Lived in London 1948-53 (In London she met Vivien Leigh who walked away when Mona said NT was like Unity.) and after marriage in Hanoi 1956-8 where she taught English. Her home was Sydney from 1958.

She gave herself the part of the Chief Rat in her school adaptation of The Pied Piper and acted a bit in her late teens, enjoying playing character parts, but her voice was not strong. Mona’s first play was written in Melbourne: a four-women one-acter First Aid in support of the Red Cross. She didn’t write another drama until Here Under Heaven developed with the Realist Writers group.

Her play In Search of Aphra never performed professionally. Aphra relegated to East not Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey. Aphra a feminist, conservationist, sympathetic to black slaves she met in Surinam, and wrote novel Oroonoko.

Wanting only a peaceful and fairer world, she joined the CPA in 1947. ASIO said she was a 100% Red sympathiser, but Mona did not feel she was a “pure” Party member, although she didn’t leave after Krushchev’s denunciation of Stalin because she considered she was a member of the CPA not the Soviet Communist Party. She visited the USSR in 1953 and was met by Security on returning to Australia ~ her passport was not vaild to Eastern Bloc countries. Brand’s phone was tapped. Big ASIO file including an agent’s report on Mona’saddressing VIEW meetings where she was given a gift of a teaspoon. ASIO said she was small and colourless but obviously intelligent, 100% Red sympathiser. Len Fox a friend of Faith Bandler and Jean and Bill Hatfield and Jean’s sister Margaret Fulton. 1980 children's show environmental pantomine The Three Secrets: This is the story of Crook Look A city by the sea Where all the people near and far Are sick as sick can be.

MONA BRAND’S Niece = Diana Brown (acted at NT) 9972 4486.

Mona Brand has a Wikipedia entry. Her autobiography Enough Blue Sky was published in 1995.

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  Mona Brand

See:

• The 1950s - Injustice and Racism
• The 1950s - Cultural Imperialism
• The 1950s - Politics
• Revue - No Strings Attached
• The 1960s - War and Peace
• The 1960s - Racism and Intolerance
• The 1960s - Imperialism
• The 1960s - Working Conditions
• The 1960s - Censorship
• The 1960s - Politics
• The 1970s - Censorship
• The 1970s - Politics
• The 1980s - Politics
• The 1980s - The Environment
• Children's Theatre

External Links

• AusStage, Mona Brand
• Obituary, Sydney Morning Herald August 2007
• Mona Brand, Wikipedia
• Mona Brand, AustralianPlays.org
• State Library announces Mona Brand award, July 2016, History Council
• New $40,000 award celebrates female scriptwriters, State Library NSW, July 2016

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