User blog:Bedpanner/royalty free plays for australia

Australia signed in 2005 an agreement to extend the duration of copyright from fifty to seventy years without changing the staus of works already released into the public domain. This means that the only existing public domain plays were written by playwrights who died before end 1955 and there will be no new works released into the public domain in Australia until 2025. I am writing here to add to the pool of plays which amateur groups can perform royalty free and making a list of titles which may interest them and hoping to make sensible reviews with a veteran amateur eye. This could be a short list of playwrights who died before 1955, but I am hoping to indicate who wrote plays with contemporary appeal, especially comedy and since the plays are expired and may now be tampered with, those which suit re-writing or adjustment to include royalty free music.

Arthur Wing Pinero (died 1934)

"Mind the paint girl" (1914) The play is anti-german, cast too large (28) and requires simultaneous dancing and line delivery on stage (too noisy), The play contains a quaint chasteness about all the married men lusting after the starlet and embarrasingly they queue to kiss her foot. contains my favourite quote "The world would be a better place if Lloyd George (prime minister) would tax your jokes"

"The Magistrate"

"The Cabinet Minister"

Robert Sherwood (died 1954)

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 * Robert Sherwood (died 1955).
 * J.M Barrie (died 1937).
 * George Bernard Shaw (died 1950).
 * Jacinto Benavenete (died 1954).
 * Frederick Lonsdale (died 1954).