Jack Hibberd

There followed Hibberd's most popular play: Dimboola, a wedding breakfast farce with audience participation. His next play, a long monodrama, A Stretch of the Imagination, is regarded by most connoisseurs as his finest work, embodying a radical advance in the character of Australian theatre, embracing and remoulding as it does many of the strong strands in theatrical modernism. Stretch was the first Australian play to be staged in China (in Mandarin) with a famous Chinese actor, Wei Zongwan, as Monk. This play has enjoyed productions in the United States, Germany and New Zealand. In 2010 it was performed in London by Mark Little, a winner of the prestigious Laurence Olivier Award.

Hibberd co-founded the Australian Performing Group (APG) in 1970. He was a member for ten years, and chairman for two. In 1983 he founded the Melbourne Writers Theatre, which is still active. He served on the Theatre Board of The Australia Council twice, and recently on its Literature Board.

Hibberd has written close to 40 plays, some of them not full length. His first play, White With Wire Wheels, was staged in 1967 at the University of Melbourne, and is a proto-feminist revenge play, which satirizes male herd behaviour and the men's obsession with cars and alcohol-virility over women.

Hibberd's micro-play, Three Old Friends, opened the legendary La Mama theatre in Melbourne (29 July 1967). This work was one of a number of very short works in which Hibberd reconnoitred the styles of Beckett, Pinter and Brecht. These, plus a couple of longer plays (Who and One of Nature's Gentlemen) made up a season called Brain-Rot (1968).

Hibberd studied medicine at the University of Melbourne and resided in Newman College. He worked as a registrar in the Department of Social Medicine at St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, from 1966 to 1967. He worked as a general practitioner until 1984, then practised as a clinical immunologist. He is married to actress Evelyn Krape, with whom he has two children. He also has two children from his first marriage.

John Charles Hibberd (born 12 April 1940 in Warracknabeal, Victoria) is an Australian playwright and physician.