Meet award-winning Brisbane writer, Stephen Vagg
By the The Constellation Team
Stephen Vagg (Left), Griffin Walsh (Middle), Gregory Wilken (Right)
Photo credit to Tom Mac Photography
Join us at Ad Astra’s newest venue, COSMOS, for the world premiere of a new Australian classic by award-winning Brisbane writer, Stephen Vagg. Stephen’s credits including Neighbours, Darby and Joan, Home and Away, and his film, All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane. Stephen’s new play, The First Night (of The One Day of the Year), will be performed in a rehearsed reading with a full cast as part of Ad Astra’s programme to support new Australian works – Astra Nova. You can meet Stephen and the cast in a Q&A after the reading on 10 December 2025.
Meanwhile, enjoy our interview with Stephen to find out more about his play and process.
Ad Astra: How long have you been working on the draft of The First Night (of The One Day of the Year) that will have a world premiere in the reading at Ad Astra?
Stephen Vagg: I wrote the play – on and off – in a couple of months this year, but I came across the story in research I did for my PhD on Australian TV writers from the late 1950s to the 1960s. So, it involved a couple of months of writing, and a couple of years of absorbing that period of time.
I had read Alan Seymour’s play The One Day of the Year a few times, and I’d seen a production at Sydney Theatre Company. I knew it was a ‘unicorn’ – as in a popular Australian play from a period of time when pretty much nothing Australian was ever produced. But I assumed that Alan Seymour was a one-hit-wonder – I didn’t realise that he was our top TV writer for about five or six years, and he had a hugely successful career in British TV – one project was a BBC adaptation of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, that everyone watched at the time. He did all these other things, but he only had the one hit play.
I also wanted to do a ‘backstage’ story – and I was inspired by the film Saturday Night about the first performance of Saturday Night Live on American TV – I was wondering if we had an Australian version of that type of story… I had a few ideas before I settled on One Day of the Year partly because it had a whole contained cast of fascinating characters. So, it’s a backstage farce – and a fictionalised account of actors behaving badly backstage – but also rising to the occasion. A bit like Michael Frayn’s Noises Off. It’s all set backstage in real time, the 70 minutes before the curtain goes up. All the backstage shenanigans… but there really was a bomb threat too!
And it’s a great story… In Australian culture, there have always been people who want to put on productions of Australian plays, but there was a time when that was really hard to do. Alan Seymour’s play was recommended for the first Adelaide Festival in 1960, but the governors were mega sensitive and decided it would not go on because it would offend the RSL.
Then this incredible woman, Jean Marshall, a theatre producer and director, decided to put it on herself with an amateur theatre troupe. They were supported with funding from the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust, who eventually gave the play a professional production in Sydney – and that got bomb threats too!
There are heavily fictionalised versions of Jean Marshall, and some of the original cast – such as Terry Stapleton. He was the lead actor, but he went on to become a major TV writer for Crawfords – he wrote Cop Shop, and The Flying Doctors – and there are other actor characters I had fun with.
AA: Writing a play based on real events, did you heed the advice of Alan Bennett who said: “Don’t let the facts get in the way of the truth”?
SV: Yes, I think you do have to just tell a good story. You can only ever be true to the spirit otherwise you are getting a play with footnotes. And that’s never worked in the history of theatre. I have written plays where I have bent over backwards to make it 100% accurate and they haven’t worked dramatically. You have to know your background and then just go for it.
AA: You have worked in TV and film, and you have also been a researcher (Howzat!). The research for The First Night (of The One Day of the Year) must have been a lot of fun. How do you know when to stop and focus on finding the shape of the play?
SV: Yes, research can lead you down the rabbit hole, so that’s why it was good that I’d already done the research for my PhD. I didn’t do any more research for the play. I set it aside, which is how you have to do it. You have to do the work and then throw out the work, so you are writing more on instinct, and focus on character – otherwise you end up writing that play with footnotes.
AA: And how do you suppress the academic voice to unleash the creative voice?
SV: Luckily, I’ve been doing that my whole career. I always alternate non-fiction with fiction. And the play is based on my version – it’s not even particularly 1960s-ish… there are some things about actors that are eternal. And I think an audience will really enjoy the cast. Some plays are actor-proof – not this one: it needs a really good cast – because it’s fun and farce – and fast-paced. The actors really get into it and have a lot of fun. And I’m very lucky with the actors I’ve got.
AA: You are also working with Willem Whitfield, who you mentored for his play Primitives for the Astra Nova programme. Tell us about that process.
SV: Willem was in the cast for the film of my play All My Friends Are Back in Brisbane, and worked on the film version as a production manager. He’s a very good actor so, when Ad Astra asked me if I’d like to mentor a writer, Willem’s play was chosen. But I’m not a huge believer in giving notes on scripts, because it’s happened too much to me! I think the most useful thing for writers is to get their work on in front of an audience – that is incredibly useful – the writer is talented and I’m happy to help facilitate wherever I can. And so, just from knowing Willem, I thought that he would be right for one of the roles in my play – an actor who is also a writer – and Willem is perfect!
AA: What’s next?
SV: Well, I’ll revise the script following the reading at Ad Astra. Then, hopefully do a season of the play somewhere next year. The best case scenario would be to do the play in Brisbane and then take it to Adelaide at some stage. That would be fun. But it’s in the lap of the funding gods!
By the The Constellation Team
The First Night (of the One Day of the Year) plays the Cosmos Theatre, Ad Astra, Petrie Terrace, Brisbane, December 10th, 8pm.
Book tickets here
