Wendy Richardson

It was while studying at Wollongong University that Richardson wrote her first play, Windy Gully, which was commissioned and performed by the Theatre South Regional Theatre Company, directed by Des Davis, in 1987.[1] The subject of Windy Gully is the mine disaster which took place at Mount Kembla on 31 July 1902, in which 96 men and boys lost their lives. Every family who lived in the village lost a relative. In many families, fathers and sons died. The bodies were buried in Wollongong Cemetery, Mount Kembla Cemetery and in an unmarked communal grave near a cricket field in Windy Gully. In describing how she came to write the play, Richardson said:

"I was beginning to understand what the coal cost in terms of human life and I knew that those outside the mining community needed to be reminded."

Windy Gully proved very popular, going on interstate tour of mining towns in Queensland and New South Wales and being performed at the New Theatre in Sydney in 1989. There was a third season at Theatre South in 2000.[1] Windy Gully was published in 1989 by Currency Press. Des Davis writes of Windy Gully:

The huge and many faceted event that was the Mount Kembla mine disaster is distilled to two hours on the stage and the human dimension of it is made accessible to an audience."[3]

Miners marching past the memorial to the Mount Kembla mine disaster, July 2006

The anniversary of the disaster is commemorated annually with a church service at the Mount Kembla Soldiers and Miners Memorial Church, a parade and Mining Festival.[4] Richardson was later to serve on the committee to organise the Mount Kembla Mining Disaster Centenary Commemoration in 2002.[5] Songs from Windy Gully are published at the Mount Kembla Mining Heritage website[6] and Illawarra Unity the journal of the Illawarra Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History.[7]

Windy Gully was followed by Slacky Flat written in 1988, which toured the South Eastern Region of New South Wales and was performed at Theatre South and at the Regional Theatre Festival in Penrith.[1]

Richardson went on to write many more plays and monologues, all performed but many not published. Des Davis writes in the foreword to Three Illawarra Plays:

"The reason for the remarkable popularity of her work, I believe, is her use of familiar occasions, minor crises and rituals of ordinary lives set against a background of community and national crises, even disaster. The plays celebrate the resilience, the humour in adversity and quiet courage of her 'ordinary people', especially her strong female characters."[1]

The backgrounds include World War II, in the case of Lights out, Nellie Martin and the Depression in Slacky Flat. The Last Voyage of the Gracie Anne looks at community issues within the local fishing industry. ... That Christmas of '75. is a backyard farce set against the sacking of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam by the Governor-General. John Senczuk writes of "...the overwhelming positive reception of the plays ...as positive and 'life-affirming'".[1]

Richardson's skills as a dramatist have been greatly appreciated by Theatre South, not only because of their "box office magic", but also because Wendy knows how to write for a small group of players and is particularly skilled at monologue. Des Davis writes of Richardson's plays "They are, moreover, constantly innovative in structure, style, and in the use of other theatrical and literary devices."[1] Unfortunately Theatre South, for whom so many of Wendy's plays were written closed in 2003.[8]

Des Davis writes "She is more popular in the Illawarra than David Williamson and Shakespeare."[1]

Richardson says:

"I am an ordinary person who writes about ordinary people. Being a writer is not a real blessing.....There have to be those people in our life that take the risk to tell the stories."

"Place is very important if you're going to write about it or create something; it's vital that you should walk and get to know it well."

Richardson was nominated for a Sydney Theatre Critics Circle Award in 1989 and was awarded an Australian Arts Council Literary Fellowship in 1990.[1] In 2005 Richardson was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for her services to the Arts and to the Community,[9] and in 2006 she was honoured in the Illawarra Australia Day Awards for her contribution to the Arts.[10] Her plays have also been produced by the Riverina Theatre Company and heard on ABC Radio. She was made a lifetime member of Theatre South and the South Coast Writers' Centre.