Out of This Nettle is a 1952 Australian radio play by Max Afford. It is a drama set in the sugar cane region of Queensland.
The play was one of Afford's most acclaimed works. The Australian setting was relatively rare at the time. Afford researched it in on a trip to Queensland.
The ABC produced the play twice in 1952, in Sydney and Melbourne. The Sydney production was directed by Frank Harvey, one of the last radio plays he directed before his retirement.
A critic from The Age said the play "had possibilities rather offset 'by too much dissertation on sugar, farming and the dragging in of taipans and pythons. It was the old Australian habit of insisting on Australia to the detriment of all else." The same critic listened to another production of the play and liked it more saying "There is undoubtedly much good writing in it and a sense of theatre, which is almost completely . lacking in most of our aspiring playwrights."
Leslie Rees said "Terse, vivid dialogue and economical shaping of plot are the play’s main merits."
A copy of the script is at the University of Queensland's Fryer Library.
Premise
David Noble, the son of a cane farmer, returns to his home in Queensland with an English wife, Vinnie. They struggle to adjust.