Summer of the Aliens
| Summer of the Aliens | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Louis Nowra |
| Characters | Lewis, Dulcie, Mr Pisano, Uncle Richard, Norma, Eric, Mr Irvin, Mrs Irvin, Grandma, Bev, Brian |
| Date premiered | 12 March 1992 |
| Place premiered | Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne |
| Genre | Drama |
| Setting |
Melbourne, Australia |
Summer of the Aliens is a semi-autobiographical, 1990s play written by Louis Nowra. The play is an often humorous, unsentimental coming-of-age story about a 14-year-old boy, Lewis, who is obsessed with flying saucers, UFO abductions and imagines aliens are invading the earth.
It was first written as a radio play and won the 1990 Prix Italia for Fiction (as an ABC radio play). It was first broadcast on 30 October 1989. Louis Nowra adapted it for the stage. The version published by Currency Press is for the theatre.
Lewis lives in a housing commission suburb on the outskirts of the city, Melbourne with his single mother, sister, and grandmother, who is rapidly approaching senility. Lewis' obsessions with aliens masks his own adolescent confusion about the changing world around him. His best friend is local tomboy, Dulcie, a spirited though troubled young woman who has her own confusions about womanhood. Meanwhile, Lewis' friend, Brian, can only think of losing his virginity.
Lewis world changes forever when his itinerant father, Eric, suddenly returns home, and Lewis discovers Dulcie's heartbreaking secret. The three-act play is set in 1962, the year of the Cuban missile crisis.
The Currency Press publication of the script states the play is set in "A Housing Commission Estate in the paddocks or northern Melbourne in the early sixties".
In the first scene, the narrator states the action takes place in the summer of 1962. Also in a foreword to the published play, the author states:
"The landscape of the play is recognisably Fawkner, a suburb to the north of Melbourne."
Louis Nowra grew up in Fawkner, as he states in his memoir, "The Twelfth of Never".
The full list of characters are as follows:
The play is in three acts, with act one consisting of nine scenes, act two made up of 11 scenes and act comprising eight scenes. Summer of the Aliens can be described as a "memory play" in the tradition of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, as the narrator's recollections of his adolescence are the basis for the action of the play. In various productions of Summer of the Aliens, both the adult Lewis (the narrator) and young Lewis can be seen on stage at the same time, and at the end both the adult Lewis and young Lewis briefly interact with each other.
Celebrated Irish playwright Brian Friel, is also noted for his "memory plays".
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Wikipedia