Forgotten poetic sensibilities: the plays of Charles Jury and Ray Mathew

Abstract

Two of the playwrights collected by Campbell Howard, namely the poets Charles Jury and Ray Mathew, attempted modes of dramatic expression and philosophical speculation which, severally, were atypical of the usual prose social and naturalistic texts produced in such quantities in the period 1920-1955. Although some of the work of both was to be published subsequently it cannot be said that either obtained more than limited public recognition as a dramatist, and each is largely forgotten today. Yet, as we shall see, the diction used by them, coupled with the intensity of their concern for both subject and characters, will ensure their ultimate place, albeit minor, in the canon of Australian drama.