7-ON PLAYWRIGHTS: Tiger Moths

Thursday 22 October 2015

Tiger Moths

One of the characters in We are the Ghosts of the Future is 11-year-old Archie. And he is fascinated by all things aviation.

The Tiger Moth aircraft that Archie makes as a model, is an open tandem cockpit biplane. Archie crafts his replica with cardboard and glue, but the real plane had a fuselage made of steel tubing and covered with fabric and plywood. De Havilland manufactured over 8-thousand DH 82 Tiger Moths between 1931 and 1945, in 7 countries, including Australia.

Royal Australian Navy De Havilland Tiger Moth

In 1937 a Tiger Moth crashed into Sydney Harbour. Newspapers reported the incident:

Flying over Sydney Harbor this afternoon an aeroplane suddenly turned on its side and crashed into the water near Circular Quay.

Three men working on No. 2 wharf east Circular Quay pluckily dived to the rescue within a few seconds of the plane touching the water. One of them supported the men until a ferry threw a line to him and hauled the injured men aboard … A launch took the airmen to Clifton Gardens wharf at the Quay, where Central Ambulance officers, were waiting.

The Newcastle Sun, Wednesday 21 April 1937

The Tiger Moth plane which crashed into the harbour at the eastern end of Circular Quay on Wednesday, when it was circling over the Nieuw Holland at a height of 1100ft, was recovered yesterday. A diver located it, half buried in silt, on a ledge of rock in about 35ft of water, and a crane on a tender hauled it to the surface … The severe damage to the plane indicated the narrow escape of the two occupants …

The Sydney Morning Herald, Friday 23 April 1937

Both airmen received minor injuries and the Tiger Moth was retrieved to fly again.

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About 7-ON

7-ON Playwrights was established in 2005 by Donna Abela, Catherine Zimdahl, Ned Manning, Noëlle Janaczewska, Vanessa Bates, Verity Laughton and Hilary Bell. Seven minds that don’t think alike but are simpatico in this—our belief in the transformative properties of our artform and its place in Australian culture. With over 200 plays between us, our work has been produced on stages across Australia. Internationally, we have been produced in Botswana, the US, the UK, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, Germany, Denmark, France, Canada, Vietnam, Korea and Japan. We have over 40 awards between us including: 14 Australian Writers’ Guild Awards, 4 Griffin Playwriting Awards, 3 Premiers’ Literary Awards, 4 Inscription Awards, an Adelaide Critics’ Circle Prize, a Phillip Parsons Young Playwright’s Award, a Wyndham Campbell Prize, a Centenary Medal, a Patrick White Playwrights’ Fellowship, and a Human Rights Award for Drama. As 7-ON we advocate for playwrights, initiate performance and publishing projects, and support and celebrate each other’s work. We create projects that are best served by a multitude of voices. These have included The Seven Needs (Griffin, 2007), Thus Spake Zarathustra (Wollongong University, 2008), Long Shadows (STC workshop, 2009), Platonic (Hothouse development, 2013), We Are The Ghosts Of The Future (Rocks Discovery Museum, 2015), and various works under the banner of Old Texts Revisited (ABC Radio, 2009), I Contain Multitudes (Novemberism Playwriting Festival, 2011) and No Nudity, Weapons or Naked Flames (MayDay! Playwrights’ Festival, 2013) which presented a selection of monologues from our anthology of the same name published by the Federation Press in 2012. We are also included in Currency Press’ anthology of short plays Short Circuit (2009).