O! Temperance
O! Temperance Author: Mervyn Thompson
First Performance: 1972, Christchurch, New Zealand
Published: 1984
Genre: Hist. drama in 2 acts; prose with songs
Setting: Meeting hall, New Zealand, 1919
Cast: 10m, 4f, many extras
At a meeting on the eve of the 1919 licensing poll, temperance workers campaign for prohibition of alcohol and re-enact episodes from the history of the Temperance Movement. A Witness tells how he succumbed to drink and lost his health, security, and happiness. Observing how a drinking companion turned from his wife and dying child, the Witness is reformed and now lives joyously with the abandoned wife. Reviewing the corruption of alcohol in colonizing New Zealand, its effect on Maori and workers is described, alcoholism becoming the new country's worst social evil. The Temperance Movement, with...
[The entire page is 326 words long]
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