Breaker Morant: A Play in Two Acts is an Australian play written by Kenneth G. Ross, centred on the court-martial and the last days of Lieutenant Harry "Breaker" Morant (1864–1902) of the Bushveldt Carbineers (BVC), that was first performed at the Athenaeum Theatre, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, on Thursday, 2 February 1978, by the Melbourne Theatre Company.
Described at the time as an "interesting, though underwritten biographical study", the first performance of the play was directed and designed by John Sumner, the founding director of the Melbourne Theatre Company.
Contents
First performance
The cast of the first performance of the play, directed and designed by John Sumner, on 2 February 1978 were:
Lieutenant Harry (Breaker) Morant — Terence Donovan
Lieutenant George Witton — Gary Day
Lieutenant Peter Handcock — John Stanton
First Interrogator; President of the Court-Martial; Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Cuthbert Denny (1858-?) — Barry Hill
Second Interrogator; Dr. Johnson; Officer — Edward Hepple
Third Interrogator; Mr. Robinson; Officer; Colonel Hamilton — Anthony Hawkins
Major James Francis Thomas — Jonathan Hardy
Major Bolton — Gerard Maguire
Lord Kitchener — Simon Chilvers
Sgt-Major Drummitt; Sergeant — Rob Harrison
Trooper; Trooper Botha; Trooper — Gary Down
Corporal; Captain Taylor; Corporal — Michael Edgar
Trooper; Corporal Sharp; Trooper — Roy Baldwin
Trooper; Van Rooyan; Trooper — Ian Suddards
Trooper; Officer; Trooper — Peter Dunn
Officer — Detlef Bauer
Trooper — Michael Morrell
Review of first performance
"In this interesting, though under-written, biographical study, Adelaide writer, Kenneth Ross, turns his attention to the Boer War and to an unsavoury episode involving two Australian lieutenants, who were tried and executed by the British." (Childs, 1978).
Conversion to a movie
The script of Ross's play was almost immediately converted into the screenplay for Bruce Beresford's 1980 film Breaker Morant.
The screenplay of the film, to which Ross had made a considerable contribution as a writer (i.e., in addition to his stage play having been the inspiration and basis for the screenplay), was nominated for the 1981 Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.