Murder in the Silo

Murder in the Silo
ABC Weekly 21 Feb 1942
Genredrama play
Running time30 mins[1] (8:00 pm – 8:30 pm)
Country of originAustralia
Language(s)English
Home station2BL
SyndicatesABC
Written byEdmund Barclay
Original release3 February 1937[2]

Murder in the Silo is a 1937 radio drama by Edmund Barclay. It was described as a psychological melodrama and was very popular at a time when Australian set radio dramas were relatively rare.[3][4] Leslie Rees called it "one of the most effective of our shorter radio plays."[5]

Barclay's script was published in a collection of one-act plays in 1937, Best Australian One-Act Plays.[6]

The play was produced by BBC radio in 1938.[7]

The play was produced again in Australia in 1939,[8] 1941, 1942, 1945 and 1953.[9] (It was usually presented on a double bill with another short play.)

Reception

The Bulletin called it "more than ordinarily good. It is a mystery-thriller, making the usual bald bid for the listener’s curiosity and subsequent undisguised attack on his feelings, but it also gives what appears to be an authentic glimpse of certain Australian types and an aspect of Australian rural life hitherto unportrayed."[10]

Wireless Weekly called it "a well-constructed melodrama with an unusual setting."[11]

The play's use of hearing the lead character's thoughts in the style of Eugene O'Neill was praised by Max Afford.[12][13]

Premise

An old swagman explains why it is bad to ride in a wheat truck. A man operates the machines of a wheat- silo. A mate asks him for a job. The operator takes him up to the top and pushes him into the silo because of a woman. The narrator passes by and takes the dead man's swag. He meets the killer on a train. The sign of a man among the wheat and his victim’s swag, sends the murderer overboard with a hideous shriek.

References

  1. ^ "Radio Station Programmes". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 30, 916. New South Wales, Australia. 3 February 1937. p. 8. Retrieved 30 January 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ "Wednesday February 3", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal, Sydney: Wireless Press, January 29, 1937, retrieved 30 January 2024 – via Trove
  3. ^ Marion Consandine, 'Barclay, Edmund Piers (Teddy) (1898–1961)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/barclay-edmund-piers-teddy-9425/text16569, published first in hardcopy 1993, accessed online 24 August 2023.
  4. ^ ""THE CRIME WITH 200,000 WITNESSES"". The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate. Vol. LXVII, no. 4331. New South Wales, Australia. 6 May 1937. p. 16. Retrieved 24 August 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ Rees, Leslie (1953). Towards an Australian Drmaa. p. 100.
  6. ^ "Australian Drama". The Sun. No. 1798. New South Wales, Australia. 12 September 1937. p. 12 (MAGAZINE). Retrieved 24 August 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ Australasian Radio Relay League (July 29, 1938), "Famous Australian in London", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal, 32 (5), Sydney: Wireless Press: v
  8. ^ "Tuesday March 7", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal, 33 (9), Sydney: Wireless Press: v, March 3, 1939
  9. ^ "Radio plays for next week ABC", ABC Weekly, 15 (31), Sydney, 1 August 1953
  10. ^ "Australian One-act Plays", The Bulletin, 58 (3005), Sydney, N.S.W: John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 15 September 1937, ISSN 0007-4039
  11. ^ "Jonathan Listens to Plays - Domestic Ditherings Pall As "Fun"", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal, 37 (10), Sydney: Wireless Press, March 7, 1942
  12. ^ Max Afford (November 4, 1938), "Writing for Radio", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal, 32 (19), Sydney: Wireless Press, retrieved 30 January 2024 – via Trove
  13. ^ "Coming on the Air", ABC Weekly, Sydney, 21 February 1942, retrieved 30 January 2024 – via Trove