SORELL by Euphemia Coulson Davidson (1874-1936)

(3M, 7F)

The author of over thirty plays, Euphemia Coulson Davidson (née Crawford Kydd) (1874-1936) was one of the early pioneers of the National Theatre Movement in Australia—a neglected link in between William Moore’s Australian Drama Nights and Louis Esson’s Pioneer Players. Born in Williamstown, Victoria, she was a child performer in Robert Brough’s first season with Williamson, Garner and Musgrove but her adolescent theatrical training ground was the Williamstown and Footscray Little Theatres, where she met her future husband John Davidson. At 26, Euphemia (or Phee) then established  the Footscray Elocution Class and she and John became active members of the newly formed Australian Literature Society (at the time when Leon Brodzky was advocating for an Australian Theatre subcommittee of the Society). 

Her first plays were written after her marriage in 1906. In 1915, the Davidson’s inaugurated a theatre at ‘Niagaroon’, their home in Warragul Road in Oakleigh. Referred to in the press as The Australian National Miniature Theatre, it seated  over 100 patrons and opened with the three act drama The Fight by ‘George Byfield’ [a pseudonym used by Euphemia; George Byfield was the name of her husband’s brother.]

Euphemia came to national prominence in 1923 when Sorell was bracketed with Millicent Armstrong’s Fire for the third prize in the Daily Telegraph’s play competition. Ten years later, her Eureka play, The Forerunners (in the reign of Victoria) was awarded the £50 first prize in The MacPherson Robertson/Australian Society of Authors play competition.

Referencing European modernist writers Ibsen, Strindberg and Hauptmann, Sorell explores the impact of addiction (to both alcohol and gambling) on a marriage and an extended family, canvassing the radical idea (for the time) that addiction might be transmitted through generations like a disease; that alcoholism might be a medical not a psychological condition. The play is also remarkable in providing 7 strong female roles (in a cast of ten). 

The volume also contains the first extensive biography of an extraordinary but ignored post-Federation playwright and influencer.

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