The Girl with the Tattered Glove is a 1938 Australian radio play by Edmund Barclay. It was one of Barclay's most highly regarded works.[2] In 1950 Barclay said "I do not think it is my best play, but there is no doubt of its popularity." [3]
The play was inspired by the painting of the same name.[4][5]
It made its debut in 1938 and was so popular it was repeated later that year[6] and in 1939. In 1940 an article said it had been produced more than any other Australian radio play.[7] The ABC produced it for Drama Week in 1941[8] where it was judged a favourite by a Listener Poll.
The play was performed again in 1944, 1945, 1947, 1948[9] and 1951, as one of a series of Australian plays for Australia's Jubilee.[10]
The play was described as "a tragedy of little things, in which the author has tried to demonstrate the old truth, that real, human drama is not dependent upon catastrophe or great adventure, but that it is inherent in everyday life, and in everyday people."[11]
The Melbourne Advocate said the play "has just the right artistic ending, which is not without a suggestion of O. Henry. This is difficult to achieve, but in this play it is well done."[12]
The Age called a 1948 production "first class... gave us a slight enough story, but every word was Intelligible and the loss of stage and scenery did not matter. That is how all broadcast plays should be."[13]
Premise
According to ABC Weekly it told "the story of a girl, a natural aristocrat, who escapes from her own vulgar domestic setting and becomes the model for a rising portrait painter, Arthur Gride... Though in general Arthur Gride is part of a fashionably arty set, he soon falls in love with Mary, whose inward as well as outward beauty has inspired him to paint the picture of his life and the "art sensation of the year." There is sadness behind the face he portrays."[14]
References
^"Wednesday March 29", Wireless Weekly, March 29, 1939, retrieved 30 January 2024 – via Trove
