John Sumner AO CBE (1924–2013), described as the 'father of Australian drama', was born in England and trained and worked in repertory theatre there before World War 2. He first visited Melbourne while serving with the British Merchant Navy, and returned in 1952 after several years working as a stage manager and director at the Dundee Repertory Theatre and in London's West End. In Melbourne, he started out as manager of the Union Theatre at the University of Melbourne, but within a year he had convinced the University to support his idea to establish the Union Theatre Repertory Company – Australia's first professional theatre company. In 1955, as founding Artistic Director, when his actors were working an 80-hour week and he was designing lights and sets and producing programmes himself, he produced the world premiere of Ray Lawler's Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, the play which is now considered a turning point in Australian theatre history. It became the first Australian play to be performed in England with an all-Australian cast, running for seven months in London and winning the 1957 Evening Standard Award for best play. Between 1955 and 1959 Sumner was in Sydney working with the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust.
After returning to the UTRC – which became the Melbourne Theatre Company under his leadership – Sumner oversaw the expansion of the company to its new Russell Street premises and eventually to the Playhouse of the Victorian Arts Centre, and worked energetically to nurture the careers of Australian playwrights including Lawler, David Williamson, Nick Enright, Alex Buzo and Alan Seymour. He directed more than 100 productions, and it is said that the MTC 'became a model for every successful state theatre company and set the standard for Australian theatre in presenting a mix of the best plays from Australia and overseas to a large subscriber base.' Sumner remained at the helm of the MTC until 1987, commuting between Australia and England for the last twelve years of his tenure. He was created CBE in 1971 and named an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1985. At the 2004 Helpmann Awards, Sumner received the JC Williamson Award for his life’s work, and in 2009 the premier performance space in the MTC's Southbank Theatre centre was named in his honour.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Jim Paterson 2004
© Jim Paterson
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