Some 20 million listeners tuned in each day to hear the adventures of Dick Barton as he solved all manner of crimes in the BBC’s post-war radio thriller of the same name before the special agent was killed off by the arrival of rural soap opera The Archers.
Johnny Dollar, a freelance insurance investigator with “an action-paced expense account” and star of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar on America’s CBS radio, had a longer lifespan, probing mysteries ranging from suspicious deaths to attempted fraud over 809 episodes from 1949 until 1962. A female equivalent was NBC’s San Francisco-based “sassy, sexy” private eye Candy Matson, who – according to the website Old Radio World – “used her pistol infrequently but was unintimidated by bad guys”.
Australia, meanwhile, had its own radio series, including a number of popular thrillers in the 1940 and ’50s that were based on adapted American scrips, performed by actors with Queen’s English accents and enhanced through sinister music and dramatic sound effects.
More than 70 years later, South Australia-based franchise Great Detectives has garnered its own following over the past decade by paying tribute to the radio detective serials of the 1950s with scripts adapted or rewritten by local producer, director and actor Benjamin Maio Mackay and presented live on stage by a cast of actors.
Producer, director, writer and actor Benjamin Maio Mackay. Photo Kyahm Ross
“It originally started with an older demographic because they either remembered the era or their parents took them to shows like this as a child, but because of the rise of podcasting and audio plays and things like that, we’ve definitely noticed that our audiences have skewed younger over the past three or four years,” Maio Mackay says, when asked about the enduring popularity of the Great Detectives at a time when audiences are spoiled for entertainment options.
“There is something nice about going to the theatre for a traditional theatrical experience.
“I adore all types of theatre – I loved [Sydney Theatre Company’s] The Picture of Dorian Gray and Jekyll & Hyde and all that multi-media kind of thing – but I also love going to see a play that’s just two actors on a bare stage or two actors on one set, and I think while this is very reminiscent of an actual thing that occurred in the ’50s, it feels very much like an ’80s or ’90s play in a lot of ways as well.”
Speaking to InReview following a successful short season in Darwin and ahead of a four-month regional tour of South Australia celebrating Great Detectives’ 10th anniversary, Maio Mackay – who is also artistic director of Adelaide-based Preachrs Productions – says the inspiration to produce the show came partly from their enjoyment of listening to BBC radio plays and also because they wanted to create a theatrical experience that would be easy to tour.
On top of that, Maio Mackay knew they could tap into the talents of some excellent voice actors – such as Jennifer Barry, one of the original cast members who has voiced more than 25 characters in total over the various iterations of the show and was nominated for the Broadway World Sydney Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2016. Great Detectives was nominated for a total of seven Broadway World Sydney Theatre Awards the same year, including for best play.
For those who haven’t yet seen a Great Detectives performance, Maio Mackay explains that as the audience enters the venue, the four actors, dressed in ’50s-style clothing, are already in position, standing behind vintage microphones and going over their scripts while music emanates from a retro record player centre-stage. When the performance begins, an on-air sign lights up.
“It’s far more than just actors reading scripts. We have the scripts as props because we know all the lines, but in the era, these recordings were done in front of live audiences so there was a level of theatricality to it because the actors were playing obviously for the listeners at home but also for the audience directly in front of them. There were characterisations and physical movement, so we take all of that into account.
“One of my favourite moments in the show is a fight sequence which does get quite physical and has a pratfall – it’s very slapstick-esq. We re-create the full experience you would have got as an audience member at one of these recordings in the ’50s. Everything about the entire experience is akin to how it would have been.”
Characterisations and physicality are integral to a Great Detectives show. Photo: Kyahm Ross
Each performance includes two mysteries, with more than eight different stories being presented since its inception. The stories for the latest tour were first performed during Great Detectives sold-out season at Ayers House as part of the 2024 Adelaide Fringe.
“The first one is led by Candy Matson [played by Tate Simpson], who is a sort of Nancy Drew-esque private eye from the ’50s,” says Maio Mackay. “There’s a body that turns up with an Egyptian amulet which leads them to a cult that is being run in San Francisco. There’s a lot of fun accents, voices and characters in that one.
“Then the second story is led by Johnny Dollar [Eden Treblico], who is an insurance investigator. He investigates the ‘clever chemist matter’ – a scientist who is working on the atomic bomb starts behaving very strangely so he’s sent to see what is going on.”
Maio Mackay and Barry are also part of the cast, with improviser and comedian Amy Sincock covering all roles as a swing.
While Great Detectives has toured to Mt Gambier previously, it hasn’t been presented in any of the other places it will visit on this tour, which begins in Murray Bridge on August 3, before travelling to Elizabeth’s Shedley Theatre, Wallaroo, Mt Gambier, Kangaroo Island, Renmark, The Riverland, Whyalla, Port Pirie and Victor Harbor.
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Maio Mackay is delighted to share the show with audiences who may not have been able to catch the cast’s antics over the past decade, especially those in regional communities who have fewer chances to experience professional theatre.
“And we’ve got so many gorgeous theatres… Don Dunstan had that big push to bring art to the regions and he helped fund all these theatres and a lot of them aren’t utilised the way they were intended… these venues are waiting for us.”
It turns out old radio detectives don’t really die, they’re just reborn to fight fresh foes in a different place and time.
Great Detectives: All New Mysteries will be touring from August 3 until November 23, with full details online.
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