The Illusionists (play)

The Illusionists is a 1955 stage play by Morris West about an advertising agent who longs to paint. It was a verse drama, like his later play The Heretic.

The play was highly commended in the 1955 playwriting competition from the Playwrights' Advisory Board that was won by Summer of the Seventeenth Doll and The Torrents.

Premise
A commercial artist leaves his job working for an advertising agency and wife and child to do his own work.

Radio adaptation
The play was adapted by the ABC for radio in 1955, 1956, 1959 and 1962.

Reviewing the 1955 radio production, The Age called it a "connected and believable story... a nice piece of work".

Stage production
The play was presented at the Theatre in the Round in London in June 1957 starring Bruce Stewart and directed by Leila Blake.

The Daily Telegraph said "neither the novelty of the setting nor the blank verse - some of it rather purple - could disguise that there was practically nothing new to be said."