Alan Seymour OAM (6 June 1927 – 23 March 2015) was an Australian playwright and author. He is best known for the play The One Day of the Year (1958). His international reputation rests not only on this early play, but also on his many screenplays, television scripts and adaptations of novels for film and television.

Works

Plays

His best-known play, The One Day of the Year was written in 1958 for an amateur playwriting competition, inspired by an article in the University of Sydney newspaper Honi Soit lambasting Anzac Day. The play met with huge controversy on its release. Initially it was rejected by the Adelaide Festival of Arts Board of Governors in 1960, but was first performed on 20 July 1960 as an amateur production by the Adelaide Theatre Group. In April 1961, at the first professional season at the Palace Theatre in Sydney, a bomb scare during a dress rehearsal forced police to clear the theatre. Later that year the production was staged at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, in London. Since then it has been staged regularly throughout Australia and internationally. It is also studied in various school curricula.

Television

Tomorrow's Child (1957) – TV play The Lark (1959) – TV play One Bright Day (1959) – TV play The Life and Death of King Richard II (1960) – TV play The Runner (1965) – TV play The Glass Virgin (1995) – television screenplay