The Playwrights Database
ALEX NICOL
Nationality: Australian
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Alex Nicol's plays include: 'The Boy Who Climbed Windmills', produced by Groundswell productions for the Festival of Sydney in 1992 with productions at the Wharf, The Riverside Theatre in Parramatta and the Zenith Theatre; 'Dancing Ground', winner of a special award at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre Company's international playwriting competition in 1992; 'Minties for the Tin', winner of the Wal Cherry Play of the year in 1992 with production by the MRPG in Albury, subsequently revived by La Mama Theatre Company in Melbourne as a VCE production in 1996, touring production SOACT theatre, 2004; 'Tiger Country', staged readings by The Melbourne Writers Theatre, La Boite Theatre Company and RTC, pro/am production by Kyneton Theatre Company, 1994; 'Skin Deep', production by Jack in the Box Theatre Company, 1994, and by Horla at the Rose and Crown, London, 2001; 'Bough Break', staged reading by Melbourne Writers Theatre, 1995; 'Pickle Bottle Hill', commissioned by Barnstorm Theatre Company and runner up in the London International Playwriting competition, 1996, staged reading by the Warehouse Theatre Company London; 'Three Toe Scratch', short-listed for the Patrick White Award, 2002; 'Buying the Bag', produced by the Riverina Theatre Company as part of a festival of short plays, 2005; 'Pigeons in the Park', produced by Triangle Theatre New York as part of the Beast Festival, 2005; and 'The Girl I left Behind Me', currently under consideration for a touring production. Other work includes 'Penny a Program', commissioned by the Old Colonialist Association of Melbourne for a performance piece to celebrate its centenary; 'Mad Mage', performance commissioned by Wagga City Council for the launch of the Federation Amphitheatre project; and 'A Land Fit For Heroes', a six-hour radio documentary series on soldier settlement following the First World War, produced for the ABC.
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below is a list of Alex Nicol's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Boughbreak Boy Who Climbed Windmills, The Dancing Ground Girl I Left Behind Me, The Liarss Minties for the Tin Pickle Bottle Hill Rock a Bye Skin Deep Three Months Two Weeks Four Days Three Toe Scratch Tiger CountryBoughbreak
Synopsis:
David, middle class and inculcated with a strong but outdated moral code cannot accept that any such bond between himself and his daughter, Penny, might be natural. He rejects any attraction he might feel for her as evil and indeed has a strong suspicion of any sexual attraction he experiences. He forces this code of behavior on a teenage Penny who, as an act of defiance, becomes pregnant. In keeping with the code of behavior ruling at the time David arranges to have the child adopted. Life then becomes a battle between Father and daughter. Penny is a gifted musician, but not quite as gifted as David believes. She fails to achieve his ambition for her, as a concert performer instead becomes a teacher. Seventeen years after the birth of Penny's daughter David attempts to `re-invent' a daughter in the form of Sophie one of Penny's gifted students. He and Penny fight for control of Sophie. Sophie is a flirt, teasing David and driving a deeper wedge between Father and daughter. He is attracted to her sexually but mistakes this attraction for the normal relationship he should have developed with his lost grandchild, inevitably the relationship sours and David driven by his obsession comes to see it as evil. In his seventies a senile David has been consigned to a nursing home and the care of a young nurses aide, Lisa. Penny realizing that time is slipping away makes one last effort to develop a truthful relationship with her Father but is thwarted by Lisa who is fascinated by David's obsessions of evil.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Melbourne Writers Theatre Staged Reading 1995
Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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Genre:
Full Length Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageBoy Who Climbed Windmills, The
Synopsis:
In the end David, who all his life, has sought to exercise his control over the young women he has come into contact with is left under the control of a young woman.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Festival Of Sydney 1992
Organisations:
Ground Swell Productions
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
Full Length Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 1 Other: 1b
Further Reference:
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Top of PageDancing Ground
Synopsis:
the Time is 1987: the play is set in a town in western NSW. A group of aborigines come to the realization that they have sufficient numbers to control the council if they can act as coordinated body at the next local government elections. An enterprising news reporter sees the news value of such a move and suggests to his editor that they have the possibility of seeing a new form of reporting at work. they can actually watch a story unfold serial-like each night on network news and, with the resources of the network are in a position to manipulate the out come of the story. An aboriginal activist, a local aboriginal legal aid officer interests her self in the election because she can see wider possibilities for the political action that the local community has embarked on. She too tries to manipulate the local population so that they will serve what she sees as being the best ends of the Aboriginal population as a whole. the local shire clerk sees the very real possibility of having to work with a predominantly aboriginal council and decides to use the one existing aboriginal councilor to divide and destroy the political actions of his people. the end is inevitable. Setting out to achieve simple goals the local people find themselves manipulated by forces they do not under stand and which they cannot control. A young boy is killed during riots that erupt before the elections. His funeral serves as one last opportunity for outside forces to manipulate the community.
Notes:
Winner special prize International playwriting competition Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester 1992
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1st Published:
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Genre:
Full Length Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageGirl I Left Behind Me, The
Synopsis:
Tracey is bored, looking for a purpose to her life. Cleaning up after the death of her grandmother, she discovers a photograph of a young, handsome lighthorseman. By a process of elimination, she identifies him as her great-great grandfather. She sets out to track down this ANZAC, this family hero, and discovers that he was killed in Palestine in 1919. Why? What was he doing there? As Tracey discovers, sometimes it's best to let sleeping dogs lie. . .
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
http://australianplays.org/ -
Music:
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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
Non-realist drama 90 min
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageLiarss
Synopsis:
Dila and Edmond work together on the night shift in the treasury of a large corporation. Edmond has ambitions above his capabilities and Dila enjoys playing with him. She tells him that she regularly advertises for a lover to order and describes the enjoyment she gets from humiliating the respondents. You can get what ever you like she tells Edmond, all you have to do is know what you want and be prepared to use it when you get it. Edmond is persuaded to apply for his fantasy woman; naturally what he'd like is a blond bimbo, a sexual playtoy. Dila encourages him and Edmond meets Cheryl. At first Cheryl seems everything he could ask for, beautiful, seemingly without a brain in her head and apparently anxious to do what ever Edmond wants. She's even amusing in her own way in that she fabricates incredible lies to fit any situation and acts as though they were completely true. Edmond at first enjoys Cheryl and then decides he'd like to dump her and move on, he'll find another lover to order. Only then does he find that Cheryl is not what she seemed to be. His new made to order lover turns out to be Cheryl again in a different guise and it's only then that he learns that he's been another of Dila's victims, she's been playing with him.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Melbourne Writers Theatre Staged Reading 1998
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Full Length Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageMinties for the Tin
Synopsis:
Dila decides she'll try the game with Cheryl. Cheryl is supremely confident that she can match Dila's wiles and finds to her cost that like all the others she's no more than a plaything.
Notes:
Winner Wal Cherry Award for the best new play of the year
1st Produced:
La MaMa ETC, NY >>> 1992
Organisations:
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1st Published:
La Mama (Australia), -
Music:
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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
Full Length Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PagePickle Bottle Hill
Synopsis:
Pickle Bottle Hill is the story of a battle for a country that has been going on for almost 200 years. the country is Australia and the combatants are the Europeans and the Chinese. Gold was the reason for the two groups first coming into contact and conflict and gold, or at any rate profit is what has the two groups interested in each other today. Pickle Bottle Hill is set on the Palmer River gold field in Northern Queensland at the end of the 19th century and at the close of the 20th century. In the 19th Century it follows the life of George Colley a European explorer, bushman, miner and Cherie, an EurAsian indentured prostitute who George teaches to find gold. their conflict is between George's spirit of independence and Cherie's bond with her family. It leads her to betray George's trust and tell her Chinese countrymen of a fabulous discovery of gold, but the gold is reef gold, and it meant death for a Chinese to be found working reef gold. In 1995 Ophelia Lu a wealthy and influential Hong Kong Chinese business woman employs public relations experts Max L'Cosse and his assistant Duncan to manage her involvement in sponsoring a University's interest in the history of the Palmer River gold field. This is simply a cover for her need to once again discover the gold reef and claim it for her Chinese family. Max and Duncan are anxious to do business at any price with the emerging economies of Asia and surrender their chance to locate and develop the reef for themselves. Linking the two centuries is Daisy Maycock, a failed academic working as an archaeologist on the field. In her words she takes no notice of what people say and less of what they write her only measurement of the truth is what they do and she forecasts continuing conflict between the two racial groups.
Notes:
Runner-up London International Playwriting Competition 1996
1st Produced:
Melbourne Writers' Theatre Staged Reading 1996
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
Full-length historical Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageRock a Bye
Synopsis:
Adaptation of Bough Break for a one-woman show
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Melbourne Writers Theatre -
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Full Length Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageSkin Deep
Synopsis:
A young woman comes seeking a messenger, someone to lead her committee to utopia. Her messiah turns out to be mad and dangerous but constrained by the niceties of modern conformity, she dares not confront him. She becomes bound up in his madness until clothed in her authority he sets forth to wreck his will on the world.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Rose & Crown, London 2001
Organisations:
Horla Theatre Company
1st Published:
- -
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
Short Play Satire One Act
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageThree Months Two Weeks Four Days
Synopsis:
In a couple of months the HSC class from this small town will be starting a new life. Some will be heading to university others will drop quietly into the places predetermined for them by this community. The relationships and friendships that have developed over the years spent together in school are about to be tested as, what started as a manufactured protest to fit a school assignment, turns real and nasty. In three months two weeks and four days, Em will leave this town and never come back. Her best friend Stacka, should go too. She of all people should know that there's no future in this dump but she's committed to Andy who's staying to play football. Stupid waste. Repo of course is a hopeless case. He'll never leave. He personifies this town he, and that mental kid, Simon. Can't they see how smug, self satisfied this dump is? It's enough to make you want to scream. Someone has to do something about it. Em will jolt this town out of its stupor. Her idea of a graffiti based protest is brilliant and sophisticated. It's a wake-up call from someone... well obviously they will have to remain anonymous.... but it will show this town up for what it is. Em does leave town in three months two weeks four days but Mary, the mad bag lady, makes sure the town will never leave her.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
http://australianplays.org/ -
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Play for young adults 90 min
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageThree Toe Scratch
Synopsis:
A group of un-skilled women from different backgrounds is forced into a fragile alliance by their work in a poultry slaughterhouse. When the owner announces the closure of the plant they opt to let all the birds out as a childish prank to register their protest. they reason that there are laws against cruelty to animals but none against cruelty to workers. If they can force the owner to continue feeding his birds, why not his workers? the owner retaliates by sending security guards in at night to kill all the fowls. Humiliated, the workers are left with a choice between meek surrender and a real fight for self-esteem. they fight but the battle opens old wounds, divides the group and ends in a violent death that marks them all forever.
Notes:
shortlisted for the Patrick While Award 2002
1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Full Length Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: 6 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageTiger Country
Synopsis:
Set in a small and declining country town Tiger Country uses the fortunes of the local football team to mirror the decline of the community. the star player, an aborigine, has been invited to go to the city and the big time. the coach desperate to hold his team together and maintain the dream of what used to be does everything in his power to prevent his going. the club president, a pragmatic businessman/farmer knows a secret. He knows that a mining company is interested in the land around the town and quietly buys up land preparatory to making a killing. the old values that held the community together break under the strain of greed.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Riverina Theatre Company 1994
Organisations:
Kyneton Theatre Company
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Full Length Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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