26/10/2025
What is "Whispers In The Marram Grass"? Its a play by poet and playwright Peter Langston, who previously had "Geoffrey" on stage in 2017 (Tamworth Dramatic Society).
SYNOPSIS
This play describes a relationship between three women cast against the values and events of nearly sixty years of the twentieth century, between 1937 and 1995. It explores: the roles and expectations of women during their most turbulent historical times of change; the meaning of love; the importance of loyalty; and the significance of truth.
ACT 1
The play opens in 1937. Sixteen year old Elizabeth is on holidays with her mother on the NSW south coast. A head strong girl, she argues with her mother about the importance of news and reality vs play in the development. That afternoon, sitting on a dune at the back of the beach, she meets Rhonda, another young, headstrong girl who is a few years older than her. They conspire to attend the local dance. That evening,
Rhonda arrives, dressed as a dapper young man by the name of Robert and talks Elizabeth’s mother into letting them attend the dance.
After the dance, Rhonda and Elizabeth return to the dune and its marram grass and discover a bond. They give each other pet names - Ronny and Libby - and agree to keep in touch.
A series of letters cover changes in their lives during the years to 1956 - Ronny has had journalist assignments in Hawaii and Japan which have bought her accolade and Libby is in a boring marriage.
They reunite at the University Cafe in Carlton, during the 1956 Olympic Games. Despite having strong feelings for each other, they argue after Ronny professes her love, which is too much for Libby to cope with, having a difficult marriage and precocious daughter.
1957 to 1963 are covered by more letters, as Libby tries to smooth things over with Ronny but Ronny fails to return her letters.
Ronny has become a very successful photo journalist and is trying to negotiate to do an article about Betty Frieden and her book, The Feminine Mystique but is forced by the editor of Time to cover the Kennedy’s trip to Dallas.
ACT 2
Ronny returns to Australia in early 1964, shell shocked and devastated. They sit on the dunes among the marram grass once again.
That night, while Libby goes down to the beach to swim, Caroline and Ronny have a heart to heart. Ronny wants to steer 15 year old Caroline in the right direction about s*x, drugs, drinking and feminism, only to find that she is already well on the way.
Ronny joins Libby back among the marram grass and they both announce major changes. Ronny is staying in Australia to work for the Australia Women’s Weekly and Libby is leaving Martin and going to university to become a doctor. Along with Caroline, they set up home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
Eight years later, at Caroline’s 21st, Libby has become a doctor and Ronny and Caroline again have a heart to heart about the future and Ronny expresses that she is not content.
A year later, Ronny’s itchy feet spark a huge argument with Libby when she announces she is returning to the USA, to work on the Washington Post’s investigative team looking into Richard Nixon.
During the next ten years, Ronny comes back to Australia, at first regularly and then sporadically and often makes excuses and
doesn’t come at all. Libby’s frustration finally boils over in a satellite phone call and she ends the relationship, much to their and Caroline’s distress.
Three years later, Libby and Caroline are back at the beach, discussing how their lives are panning out when Caroline receives a telegram telling her that Ronny has been killed in Italy during a terrorist attack at an airport.
In the final scene, fourteen years later, we are at The Dunes retirement village. Caroline wants to share with her mother her first published book, the story of Libby and Ronny, called Whispers In The Marram Grass. She also desperately wants to communicate her love for her mother who has been crippled by a stroke. She just wants her mother to be able to say it back to her.
She leaves to find a vase and at that moment, Libby dies. Ronny returns as the young 19 year old women we first saw and as Libby rises from the wheelchair and they go down to the beach, where Libby is now 17 again. They discuss the significance of the marram grass and the whispers they always heard when sitting with it. The discussion centres on the meaning of truth to them and what their role is now in conveying it.
You can contact the author, Peter Langston, via email if you are interested.
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