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THE PUTTING DOWN OF NED KELLY by Len Kenna
This play should be of interest to schools and theatre
companies alike. It was on the VCE for Victorian Schools in Australia in 1997 and was also performed in the Old Police Garage next to the Old Melbourne Gaol where Ned Kelly was hanged, Benalla Arts Festival 1995 and many other Schools and Victorian venues.
It considers the legal interpretations of the trial, the
history of the period and other religious interactions
between various sections of society shortly after the Irish Potato Famine.
Synopsis
Melbourne late October 1880. A notorious bushranger Edward (Ned) Kelly is about to be brought to trial for murder following the killing of three police officers at Stringy Bark Creek in North East Victoria. Ned Kelly , was charged with the murder of Constable Lonigan who had been captured some weeks earlier in spectacular and highly unusual circumstances at Glenrowan,
Victoria.
Ned Kelly is imprisoned in the Melbourne Gaol awaiting trial. His mother is in the same gaol convicted to 3 years hard labour for aiding and abetting the attempted murder of Police Officer Constable Fitzgerald. The attempted
murder of Fitzgerald is one of several charges pending against her son.
During this time the City of Melbourne is one of the
richest cities in the world. North Eastern Victoria where the Kellys live, is experiencing a series of droughts and economic decline in rural industries this has had a serious effect upon the social and economic activities of the area. There is a large gulf between the 'haves' in the city and the 'have nots' in the North East.
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