The stage history of The Ham Funeral began quietly. I’d met Patrick White at a British Drama League party in Sydney and again at my production of Sartre’s Lucifer and the Lord. Some months later, early in 1961, he telephoned to say that The Ham Funeral was to be presented at the second Adelaide Arts Festival, and he invited me to be the producer. I read the manuscript and we discussed casting. However, the play was rejected by the Festival authorities on a minority vote. Then Dr. Harry Medlin, in the face of strong ‘Establishment’ opposition, announced that the Adelaide Union Theatre Guild would present this untried play.

At first the script refused to come to life for me, and I was disturbed by the ‘anima’ figure of the girl and parts of the play’s construction. I tried to persuade Patrick White to rewrite several passages, but he remained adamant: he could change nothing in such an ‘old’ play, written about fourteen years earlier. I then decided to hold a rehearsed moved reading in the hope of refreshing White’s interest. Later he did rewrite some passages, notably a new aria for the first relative, but elsewhere the rewriting was entirely that of speeches he felt were too literary. When rehearsals began and the rewritten pieces were found not to ‘play’ well, we tried the original lines and those which were more satisfactory were kept.