Morgan's Run

Morgan's Run
Morgan's Run  
Author(s) Colleen McCullough
Country Australia
Language English
Genre(s) Historical novel
Publisher Century
Publication date 31 August 2000
Media type Print (hardback & paperback)
ISBN 0712680462
OCLC Number 44533284
Preceded by The Courage and the Will: The Life of Roden Cutler VC
Followed by The Touch
Morgan's Run
The Musical
Music Gavin Lockley
Lyrics Gavin Lockley
Book Colleen McCullough
Basis Morgan's Run the book based on the voyage of the First Fleet and colonisation of Australia.
Productions 2011 Springwood Civic Centre

The book

Morgan's Run is a historical novel by Colleen McCullough published in 2000 about the life of an English prisoner driven to the first penal colonies in Australia in the 18th century. Much of the novel is set in the penal colony on Norfolk Island It starts off with the prisoners life in Bristol England and describes in detail of his survival of the transportation on a prison ship to Norfolk Island and how he dared to hope in the hard life of a convict on Norfolk Island.

The musical

The book has been adapted into a musical by Colleen McCullough and composer Gavin Lockley[1] The musical's debut was over 8 shows in the Springwood Civic Centre by the Blue Mountains Musical Society with a cast of 32, a small classical orchestra, a harpsichord, and a rock drum kit.[2] These performances were organised in support of the Royal Flying Doctor Service and attended by the Governor of New South Wales, Her Excellency, Professor Marie Bashir AC, CVO.[3]

Gavin Lockley worked closely with Colleen McCullough and spent most of 2010 on Norfolk Island, the penal colony to which the musical's main character Richard Morgan was sent. Lockley's previous works including The Symphony of Australia and Ballads of the Bush have sought to express the history and essence of the nation and create a distinctive national musical heritage. Whilst Ballads of the Bush sets popular Australian verse to music, and the Symphony of Australia celebrates a nation, Morgan's Run is a narrative about the founding of a nation and its character.[4]

References