In a recent interview on ABC radio, the playwright, Stephen Sewell, deplored the lack of revivals of notable Australian plays. Now and then, one of the pioneer playwrights from the first half of the century is honoured briefly in this way, but it is much rarer to find one of the professional companies revisiting the major works of the last twenty-five years. As Sewell implied, this reflects the lack of a strong sense of a tradition of ‘modem classics’ in our theatre.

There are some obvious reasons for this: our leading companies, to the degree that each recognises an obligation to perform Australian work, tend understandably to give priority to new writing. Currency Press, throughout those twenty-five years in which a national repertoire has become an established part of the theatrical scene, has boldly and faithfully preserved the texts of most of these new Australian plays. That commitment to new work is a splendid principle, as it applies both to performance and publication, but it does tend to enshrine the text at its first-production stage.

The shortage of revivals, and the relative shortage of revised texts, has limited the opportunity for playwrights and performers to benefit from the learning experiences of those initial seasons.