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This production is brought to life by Astra Nova. This division of Ad Astra works not only with emerging playwrights, but also established playwrights developing their new work. The First Night (of the One Day of the Year) had is first public presentation as a moved reading in 2025 in Cosmos at Ad Astra. The audience feedback was overwhelmingly enthusiastic and it was then decided to incorporate it into our 2026 season as the final production in Pluto for the year. Stephen Vagg has also generously given his time to support the other side of Astra Nova, working as a mentor for one of the emerging playwrights in the 2025 programme.
WORLD PREMIERE - First Night (of the One Day of the Year) by Stephen Vagg
Backstage has never been this dangerous……
Adelaide, 1960. It’s a time of the Cold War, puritanism, six o’clock closing and near-complete foreign domination of Australian culture. Alan Seymour’s stage play The One Day of the Year, a critical look at Anzac Day, is about to make its world debut in the city of churches. The play had been selected for performance at the Adelaide Festival, a decision overturned by the Festival’s governors on the grounds its contents might offend ex-servicemen. An amateur theatre society decide to put on the show instead. The First Night is a fictional rendering of opening night, based on fact - cast romances, bomb threats, the vice squad, censorship, snide bureaucrats, missing actors, ASIO spies, cultural cringe, and that friend of the show who demonstrates support by sitting in the front row and coughing. It's a farcical comedy about sex, spies, spoons, Adelaide, acting, Australian stories and why the show must go on.
Stephen Vagg is an award-winning playwright whose works have been performed in theatres around the world including All My Friends Are Returning to Brisbane,Sidekicks, Rebel Tour, Friday Night Drinks and Dirty Caff. He has worked as a writer, script editor and story producer on television series such as Darby and Joan, Neighbours, Rock Island Mysteries, and Home and Away. He wrote and co produced the feature films All My Friends Are Back in Brisbane, Jucy and All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane. He is the author Rod Taylor: An Aussie in LA, a biography of Australian actor Rod Taylor and was a consultant on the feature film documentary, Rod Taylor: Pulling No Punches. He has worked as a researcher on television shows such as McLeod’s Daughters and Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War. He has a Phd from Macquarie University on the history of early live Australian television drama from 1956-69, which inspired the writing of The First Night (of the One Day of the Year).
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Stephen Vagg is an award-winning playwright whose works have been performed in theatres around the world including All My Friends Are Returning to Brisbane,Sidekicks, Rebel Tour, Friday Night Drinks and Dirty Caff. He has worked as a writer, script editor and story producer on television series such as Darby and Joan, Neighbours, Rock Island Mysteries, and Home and Away. He wrote and co produced the feature films All My Friends Are Back in Brisbane, Jucy and All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane. He is the author Rod Taylor: An Aussie in LA, a biography of Australian actor Rod Taylor and was a consultant on the feature film documentary, Rod Taylor: Pulling No Punches. He has worked as a researcher on television shows such as McLeod’s Daughters and Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War. He has a Phd from Macquarie University on the history of early live Australian television drama from 1956-69, which inspired the writing of The First Night (of the One Day of the Year).
A photo from a 1962 production at La Boite
Https://laboite.com.au/about/history/1960/the-one-day-of-the-year-1
The original 1960 production
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Mild sexual references
Mentions of suicide
Stylised violence
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Coral | Janaki Gerard
Ogie | Griffin Walsh
Tony |
Joan | Bronwyn Nayler
ABC Newsreader| Elliot, Neil, Grenville, Rex | Gregory Wilken
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Playwright & Director | Stephen Vagg
Intimacy Co-Ordinator | Sharnee Tones
Costume Supplier | Xanthe Jones
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This review is of the moved reading in 2025.
“The behind-the-scenes setting and hit-the-ground-running humour brings to mind a farce such as Michael Frayn’s Noises Off. The surreal comedy and theatrical in-jokes are immediate and chewed up by a cast of some of Brisbane’s finest performers.”
Beth Keehn - Stage Whispers | Read Review
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"The First Night is my tribute to a generation of artists whose careers were pointlessly wiped out. I also wanted the play to draw attention to how many of the issues of 1960 are still with us today.”
In Review | Read More
"Brisbane playwright Stephen Vagg (All My Friends Are Back in Brisbane, Jucy, All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane) takes us backstage on that first night in 1960, behind the scenes of the banning, the bombs, and the bouquets, as Ad Astra’s new creative Cosmos space stages a rehearsed (moved) reading…”
Stage Noise | Read More
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