The Problem of Johnny Flourcake

The Problem of Johnny Flourcake is a 1949 Australian radio feature by Ralph Peterson. It was written in verse.

The play was acclaimed and the ABC presented it again in March 1950 with the lead role played by Anthony Quayle, then touring Australia in a play. This established a relationship between Peterson and Quayle that proved crucial when Quayle helped Peterson's play The Square Ring be produced.

Premise
"The birth of an aboriginal boy, his growth and education at a mission school, and the trials and tribulations which beset him as an adolescent and young adult."

Reception
According to Smith's Weekly, "Always directly personal, the narration touched on the misery and terror endured by Johnny's fore fathers, the callous treatment of his black brethren of to-day, and the diminishing future of corruption or neglect. AH this was related in the most lucid story form, with a single narrator leading us past successive moments of drama. Most of the verse was direct and simple, and the dramatic episodes were economically brief."

The Sun called it "one of the most moving and beautifully-written scripts yet heard in local radio."

The Daily Telegraph reviewer "hoped" the play "was the last word — or the last 20,000 words — on this sad topic."