Leslie Rees AM 1905-2000

‘He was like an oasis in the wilderness,’ said scriptwriter and playwright Eleanor Witcombe.
‘You must understand, there was no theatre then, none. Absolutely none! You just couldn’t write about any Australian subjects at all. There was no prestige about writing plays about Australia, and when we did start to do it, our writing was extremely tentative. You see, we were unsure of ourselves. We had been put down so often and we had no one to help us through, tell us how we were doing. Leslie was one of the very few people around who would help us with the actual process of writing… The place was like a wilderness.’

Rees’ own plays included Sub-Editor’s Room, a one-acter produced by Sydney New Theatre in the 1930s (it later had the distinction of being the first Australian play performed on television); Lalor of Eureka, which won a 1939 Melbourne New Theatre competition; and an adaptation of Ruth Park’s Harp in the South, in collaboration with the author. Rees also wrote many books for children; the tale of Digit Dick, ‘the boy as big as his mother’s toe’, was probably the most popular. His bush stories teem with enchanting characters like Shy the Platypus and Karrawingi the Emu.

But it was as a documenter of the drama that Rees made his most remarkable contribution: three indispensable chronicles of Australian theatre history. The first, Towards an Australian Drama, was published in 1953. In 1987 this was revised and expanded to become the two-volume A History of Australian Drama. Rees’s own memoirs, Hold Fast to Dreams, were published in 1982.

In 1981, in recognition of his ‘services to literature’, Leslie Rees was made a member of the Order of Australia. In 1999 he was honoured with a special award in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards for his unparalleled contribution to the Australian theatre and writing: ‘He has pursued excellence,’ read the citation. ‘He has held on fast to ideals and visions, he has pursued his dream for an Australian drama with an aggressively, recognisably Australian vision, a love of the country and a firm set of ideals.’

Leslie Rees died on 17 August 2000. He was 94.

Frank Van Straten, 2007