ABSTRACT

Philip Baxter arrived in Australia in January 1950 with a clear nation-building agenda: to bring Australia into the nuclear age. Over the next 25 years, he would lead the founding of institutions as diverse as the University of New South Wales, the Sydney Opera House and the Hi-Flux Australian Reactor, but he was ultimately frustrated in his aim of bringing nuclear power to Australia. Baxter retired in 1972, when it was clear his ambitions for the country would not be realised. Only then, embracing a love for amateur theatre he had nursed throughout his life, did he write his only known play: The Day the Sun Rose in the West. He mobilised his contacts from decades of arts patronage in an attempt to bring his play to the stage, only to be soundly rebuffed. After his death, the script was filed away among his papers. A morality play closely modelled on the work of George Bernard Shaw, The Day the Sun Rose in the West, might then represent a last-ditch effort from Baxter to intervene in public discourse. Despite the play’s shortcomings, this article positions Baxter as a key figure in the institutionalisation of Australian culture over three decades.

抽象的

菲利普·巴克斯特（Philip Baxter）于1950年1月抵达澳大利亚，提出了明确的国家建设议程：将澳大利亚带入核时代。在接下来的25年中，他将领导新南威尔士大学，悉尼歌剧院和高通量澳大利亚反应堆等各种机构的建立，但最终他对将核电引入澳大利亚的目标感到沮丧。百特于1972年退休，当时很明显他对国家的野心是不会实现的。直到那时，他怀着对他一生所护理的业余剧院的热爱，才写出了他唯一出名的戏剧：《西方太阳玫瑰日》。他动员了数十年来艺术赞助的人脉，试图将自己的表演带到舞台上，但遭到了强烈的拒绝。他去世后，剧本被归档在他的论文中。一个道德剧仿照萧伯纳，工作这一天太阳升起在西方，则可能代表从巴克斯特最后的努力，在公共话语进行干预。尽管该剧有缺点，但本文将百特定位为三十年来澳大利亚文化制度化的关键人物。