The Ship of Heaven: A Musical Fantasy in Three Acts. With Illustrations by the Author.
Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1951. Hugh McCrae. First Edition. Hardcover. Hardcover : pp. [2, blank] [12] 13-[123] [2, blank] : original maroon cloth with gilt ship decoration and lettering, top edge tinted purple, full-page black and white line drawings throughout : paper dust jacket with ship illustration to top cover.
Tiny bump to one extremity, small section at base of spine faded, else an excellent first printing with dustjacket. Near Fine / Near Fine. Item #6292
Hugh McCrae first began devising The Ship of Heaven in 1923. Within six months he wrote of the project, "[M]y friend Rupert Atkinson (author of the Embarkation for Bubastis) came to me with the request that I should write him a play suitable for production under a system which he named the Stage-Cinema-Interaction Process. The intention of his scheme is almost immediately explained by its title: however, to prevent any misunderstanding, it may be briefly stated that Mr. Atkinson’s idea tended towards the joining up of the ordinary legitimate spoken drama with the silent action of the screen." (The HOME, March 1, 1924).
Despite McCrae's hopes that The Ship of Heaven would be produced in 1924 it did not premiere until 1933 at the Savoy Theatre. By the time the play was published by Angus and Robertson in 1951 the 1933 production was a "charming" but distant memory and no trace remained of Atkinson and his Stage-Cinema-Interaction Process.
Price: $50.00