Belonging; Playwright's Biography; Introduction; 1 THE TURN OF THE CENTURY; The transition period; 'Australianness' and Australian playwrights; On Our Selection; Authenticity, melodrama and realism; The Touch of Silk; Commercial theatres; Repertory theatres; The Nationalist Theatre; Esson and Adams; 2 BUSH AND CITY; The bush legend; Louis Esson; Writers without a theatre; Bush women; 3 SETTLING THE LAND; Station and historical dramas; Family sagas; Country practices; Dymphna Cusack; George Landen Dann; Mona Brand; In the shadow of 'The Doll'; 4 INTO THE CITY.

The end of an era: the Doll School5 PATRICK WHITE; The Ham Funeral; The Season at Sarsaparilla; A Cheery Soul; Night on Bald Mountain; Big Toys; Signal Driver; Netherwood; Shepherd on the Rocks; 6 PLAYWRIGHTS IN THE 60S; Dorothy Hewett; Peter Kenna; Hal Porter; Barry Humphries; Other precursors of the New Wave; Jane Street; 7 THE NEW WAVE; La Mama, the APG, Nimrod; Oakley, Blair, Reed; Jack Hibberd; John Romeril; Vaudeville history; 8 DAVID WILLIAMSON; 9 PLAYWRIGHTS IN THE 70S; Alexander Buzo; Alma De Groen; Jim McNeil and other prison playwrights; Reg Livermore; 10 THE NEW INTERNATIONALISM.

Stephen SewellLouis Nowra; 11 PLAYWRIGHTS IN THE 80S; Nick Enright; Michael Gow; 12 IDENTITY AND COMMUNITY; Feminist Theatre; Gay and Lesbian Theatre; Community Theatre; 13 IMMIGRANTS AND EXILES; The ghetto and the community; Ethnicity and multiculturalism; 14 ABORIGINAL THEATRE; Jack Davis and black theatre in the 1980s and 1990s; White writers; 15 PLAYWRIGHTS IN THE 90S; Jenny Kemp; Hannie Rayson; Joanna Murray-Smith; Tobsha Learner; 16 THE END OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY; Katherine Thomson; Debra Oswald; Michael Gurr; Andrew Bovell; Daniel Keene; CONCLUSION; ENDNOTES; Introduction.

Chapter One: The turn of the centuryChapter Two: Bush and city; Chapter Three: Settling the land; Chapter Four: Into the city; Chapter Five: Patrick White; Chapter Six: Playwrights in the 60s; Chapter Seven: The New Wave; Chapter Eight: David Williamson; Chapter Nine: Playwrights in the 70s; Chapter Ten: The new internationalism; Chapter Eleven: Playwrights in the 80s; Chapter Twelve: Identity and community; Chapter Thirteen: Immigrants and exiles; Chapter Fourteen: Aboriginal theatre; Chapter Fifteen: Playwrights in the 90s; Chapter Sixteen: The end of the twentieth century; Conclusion.

Play listworks cited; index; copyright page.