The First Night (of the One Day of the Year)
About
WORLD PREMIEREBackstage 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).
Content Warnings :
Mild sexual references, mentions of suicide, stylised violence.
Dates
Thursday 5 November 2026 - Saturday 21 November 2026 (UTC+10)Location
Pluto - Ad Astra
Lower Level, 210 Petrie Terrace, Brisbane QLD 4000
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The First Night (of the One Day of the Year)
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