WASTED: The true story of Jim McNeil, violent criminal and brilliant playwright
By Ross Honeywill
'Wasted' is the true
story of Jim McNeil - a man jailed for armed robbery who would become one of the
most important Australian playwrights of the twentieth century. Jim McNeil quit
school at thirteen. At fourteen he was introduced to Melbourne's underworld by
his lover, the madam of a notorious brothel. Despite his love of reading and philosophy,
McNeil relished his life among thugs and thieves, becoming one of Australia's
most feared criminals.
In 1967, having jumped bail and fled
to New South Wales, the 32-year-old McNeil shot a policeman during an armed robbery.
He was convicted and began a seventeen-year prison sentence, leaving behind his
pregnant wife and five children. In Parramatta maximum-security prison, surrounded
by the worst criminals in Australia, McNeil joined a reform group known as the
Resurgents, where he soon discovered his talent as a writer. Locked up for what
seemed a lifetime, he also discovered prison sex, became involved in a prison
break and outwitted Australia's underworld legends.
When he
wrote his first play, McNeil had never set foot in a theatre. Just four years
later he was a celebrity, freed ten years early thanks to David Marr, Katharine
Brisbane and a powerful group of Sydney's elite, who declared him one of the country's
most important writers. Within months of his release, McNeil had married actor
and director Robyn Nevin, won the Australian Writers' Guild award for the most
outstanding script in any category and was commissioned to write the screenplay
for My Brilliant Career. Charismatic, dangerous and charming, he was at the height
of his powers.
But McNeil never wrote again. Pursued by Sydney
society and lost in a world that lacked the strict regimen of prison life, he
fell back into alcoholism and violence. He returned to the streets and died within
a decade. His four plays stand as a testament to a remarkable talent sadly wasted.
Ross Honeywill met Jim McNeil after he was released from prison and has long wanted
to tell his story. In 'Wasted' he draws on previously unpublished letters by McNeil
as well as original research. He is a social and consumer behaviourist, and is
frequently quoted as a commentator on social change. He lives in Tasmania.
'Wasted'
is available now.
