The Australian Stage

The story of the origins of European style theatre in Australia is as singular as the story of that nation itself, and can be traced back as far as the arrival of the first penal colony settlers. In 1879, less than a year after their arrival, Governor Arthur Phillip granted some convicts permission to stage a dramatic performance in celebration of the birthday of King George III (of England) and the saving of the colony by the timely arrival of the supply ship Sirius. The play was a comedy entitled "The Recruiting Officer" and was performed by a cast of convicts with the audience being mostly members of the garrison.

The event was not so successful as to warrant it's immediate repetition, but a few years later, in 1795, new Governor Hunter, granted permission to several of the more decent class of convicts, led by one Robert Sidaway, a Baker, to erect a temporary structure to serve as a playhouse. Given the grand name of The Victoria, it opened in January 1796 with performances of "The Revenge" and "The Hotel". As there was little cash money in circulation in the colony at the time, the price of admission was taken as a measure of spirits, flour, meat, or any other commodity of general value.

With few alternative means of diversion available, the convicts took to play-going with a passion, with the unfortunate effect that the worst among them resorted to any means to obtain the means of admission. One convict is even said to have killed a guard officer's dog and passed it's meat off as kangaroo to get inside. Pick-pocketing inside was rampant as was the burglarising of the patrons empty residences. In fact, such was the rise in the crime level that after two years the Governor ordered the playhouse to be closed and the structure destroyed.

One of the problems faced by any attempt to establish theatre in Australia at that time was the difficulty in reconciling the idea of theatre, which was after all a frivolous exercise designed for amusement, with the ethos of a penal colony as a place of punishment for miscreants. On the one hand, it was recognised that the convicts needed an outlet for their frustrations and emotions and to distract them from other, potentially more destructive activities, but on the other hand the release of those emotions could easily get out of hand - as indeed had been the experience of that early experiment.

But theatre could not be denied for long, especially as increasing numbers of free settlers began to arrive in the colony. Consequently, theatre finally gained a foothold in Australia in 1833, when a Sydney merchant named Barnett Levey opened the Theatre Royal. Levy had been refused a licence upon his first application five years earlier, but had in the meantime successfully staged a number of concerts and balls at his Royal Hotel. When a new governor was appointed to the colony, Sir Richard Bourke arriving in December 1831, Levey had been encouraged to re-apply for a licence - this time successfully. In 1838, a second Sydney theatre, The Royal Victoria, was opened by Joseph Wyatt.

Both of these theatres were converted structures, the first purpose built theatre in Australia being that built by the Solomon brothers in Adelaide in 1840. Called The Queen's Theatre, it opened in January, 1841, with "Othello". That same year a theatre was built in Melbourne - an extremely rickety structure known as The Pavilion. Initially refused a theatre licence, it was used to stage balls and concerts. A theatre licence was granted in 1842, but only for twelve months, after which renewal was refused and the enterprise was wound up. It was quickly replaced by The Queens Theatre, however, built by Councillor J.T. Smith, a superior structure catering to a better class of patrons, and for which a licence had been granted.

On stage, early Australian drama largely mirrored that of England, consisting mostly of comedies, pantomimes and musical plays. Theatre audiences during this period continued to be rowdy and ill-behaved. Brawls were common, and heckling unrestrained - occasionally even leading to bouts of fisticuffs between cast and audience members. This did little to improve the reputation of theatre on the continent, which continued to be regarded as an encouragement toward rowdy and loutish behaviour.

This type of behaviour was unacceptable, however, to the growing number of middle and upper classes, swelled by the arrival of increasing numbers of free settlers who brought with them a European sense of conservative morality. By the 1850's, the idea of theatre as a form of pure popular entertainment was beginning to be challenged by the idea of theatre as a form of education and intellectual stimulation, and Opera, Drama and Shakespeare began to increasingly appear alongside the usual fare of pantomime, circus, minstrel shows and variety. At the same time, the gold rushes brought a growth in population and wealth, increasing the demand for theatrical entertainment.

Theatre was also now sufficiently established with enough comfortable venues that touring companies began to be attracted from Europe, particularly Britain, and the USA. By the 1870's, improvements in transport brought a great increase in the number of such companies, heightening the interest in theatre and helping to encourage the building of the many new theatres that sprang up in the 1880's. The extent to which England still influenced the Australian theatrical scene can be seen from the names of these new establishments: names like The Princess's, Her Majesty's, The Criterion, The Garrick and The Theatre Royal.

In the latter part of the nineteenth century an ever increasing number of European and American stars took the opportunity of touring "down under"; these included (but was were by no means limited to) Olga Nethersole in 1890, the 'divine' Sarah Bernhardt in 1891, Wilson Barrett and Lillah McCarthy in 1897, and Nat Goodwin and the Elliott sisters, Maxine and Gertrude also in 1897, and legendary music-hall Marie Lloyd in 1901.

By now many aspects of the Australian theatre tradition had become firmly established largely upon British lines, with both 'legitimate' and 'popular' theatre continuing to enjoy widespread appeal. Indeed, Ernest Charles Buley wrote in "Australian life in town and country" (1905)

"The Australian theatre is almost an exact counterpart of the theatre in Great Britain. The buildings are designed on the same lines, with but little regard for the coolness and ventilation necessary in such a climate, and one may see, as in the English provinces, the latest London success, enacted by a company of London players. Save for a few melodramas, and dramatic versions of well-known Australian novels, such as Robbery Under Arms, or His Natural Life, the Australian drama does not yet exist. There are music-halls, but, robbed of their attractions in the shape of permission to smoke and consume alcoholic liquor on the premises, they do not enter into so keen a rivalry with the legitimate theatre as in other countries. The taste for light opera and musical comedy, so marked a development in the theatrical preference of Great Britain and America during recent years, is even more noticeable in Australia, where grand opera is also popular among the people. The universal love of music which makes this possible is also accountable for the frequency and the success of ballad concerts, and these, rather than the music- halls, are the rivals which the theatrical manager has to fear."

It is not my intention here to present a full history of Autralian theatre, the above being only a selection of highlights bringing us up to the period to which this site is dedicated. Reproduced below is a period account of the Australian stage as it existed in the Edwardian era.

Australians are - considering the meagre population of their country - the best theatre-goers in the world. Also - and I speak from a not inconsiderable experience of play-acting in the colonies - they are about the most critical. In American parlance "they want the goods." If the "goods" are supplied to them the play will run till the entire play-going public has seen it. If, on the other hand, the performance does not attain to that quaint but desirable definition they will, after the first night (a "first-night" in Australia is an event at which everybody seems anxious to assist), stay away in their thousands. There is nothing the Australian prides himself on more than his independent point of view, and, no matter how well boomed an entertainment may be, if it is not to his taste he will not have it, and nothing on earth can make him have it.

This ultra-critical attitude is not so very surprising when one comes to think of it. A country that even in its young days had the privilege of seeing such players as Gustavus Brooke, Barry Sullivan, William Creswick, Walter Montgomery, and Edwin Booth, to mention only a few star tragedians, has had a fairly high-class standard in acting set up for it. Since those early days, be it remembered, the Colonies have had the very best plays and many of the best players that England and, of late years, America could supply. The rights of the successful pieces only are acquired for the Australian market - pieces that have already gained favour with audiences elsewhere. For, pending the coming of the native dramatist, there is no such thing as trying a piece on the "dog" in Australia.

This being understood, it will be granted that Australian taste, where the drama is concerned, should be a particularly cultured one. Therefore, it behoves the English actor or actress who contemplates a professional visit to the colonies to keep this fact well in mind. In my humble judgment the Australian appreciation of a player's talent is surprisingly accurate as a rule. A land that, young as it is, has produced such great artists as Melba, Ada Crossley, and Amy Castles among singers, and Nellie Stewart, Marie Lohr, Edith Latymer, and Alice Crawford among actresses, may safely be allowed the possession of both artistic taste and critical acumen. Verbum sap.

The English actor, then, if he goes to Australia, and, giving the best that is in him, "makes good," will have a very enjoyable experience. Should he join one of the organisations of the theatrical managements long established out there his work, though hard at first, will be performed under most agreeable conditions.

To begin with, the climate is hard to beat. In the winter there is but little frost, no snow (except on the high mountainous ranges), while fog (that dreaded enemy of the English artist) is conspicuous by its absence. The summer is glorious beyond expression. Old Sol, like the hardy old public performer he is, never disappoints his audience in Australia. His season is always a brilliant success! When the actor lands on these sunny shores he will be warmly welcomed by a hospitable people, and thereafter his work must speak for him.

The actual work will be found very little different from that in England, with the exception that the long run (as experienced in London) is a thing unknown. In the big cities of Melbourne and Sydney - the population of which cities combined does not greatly exceed a million souls! - after six or seven weeks at the outside, the drawing power of most plays, however successful they may have been at home, will be exhausted; comic operas and pantomimes are the exceptions to this rule. But during the run all the playgoing public will have paid to see the pieces, and the theatre will have been practically full all the time. And although the prices of admission are lower than at home, full theatres all the time mean handsome profits. In the smaller cities of the Commonwealth shorter runs naturally obtain, but the business is uniformly good.

Imagine a big repertory company with a series of the latest London successes travelling around to the big cities of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and a fair idea will be gained of what touring in Australia is like; with the noteworthy exceptions that the journeys in the colonies are very much longer, and that the cities, when you come to them, are cleaner, fresher, and more cheerful as a rule. The people appear more prosperous; poverty, if there be any, is never in evidence. Repertory work, of course, calls for constant rehearsal, and it must be admitted that, especially at the outset, the newcomer will have very little spare time on his hands. But what would you? The average actor in England - I think he will agree with me - has too much spare time as a general rule. After putting in six weeks of what is surely the complete lazy life on the liner that takes him out, a little hard work should be welcomed even for its own sake. There is nothing so tiring to the keen actor as "resting."

If the actor voyages right round on the ship to the port of Sydney (and I envy him the eye-opening experience of steaming up radiant Sydney harbour for the first time) he will arrive at a city which possesses some of the best-appointed and best-managed theatres in the world. Here are the headquarters of the famous firm of J. C. Williamson, hard by, and connected with the leading theatre, Her Majesty's. The imposing front of this playhouse is situated in Pitt Street, a compact and tremendously busy thoroughfare running right up from the Circular Quay (where passengers land) straight to the railway station - a distance of about a mile. Besides Her Majesty's there are the various other theatres: Theatre Royal (under the same management), Criterion, Palace, and many large-sized halls, given over nowadays to the inevitable kinematograph entertainments - for "pictures" have become part and parcel of the entertainment of Australia as of most countries on the globe. There are also two principal variety palaces, one of which, the Tivoli, managed by the ever-green Mr. Harry Rickards, has welcomed a great many of England's music hall stars. The other, the National, submits a programme which contains the names of home-grown artists only - and very smart and clever is the native variety artist, by the way.

Sydney, apart from being one of the most beautiful spots in the world, has also a well-won reputation for being, in the words of the English business manager, "a splendid show town." Even in the hottest months of the year (and it can be hot in Sydney!) the theatres will be packed night after night with audiences keen and responsive to a high degree. The English actor on making his first bow may well make use of the time-worn quotation which he has doubtless at some time or other seen inscribed in a landlady's book, and murmur, "This is a home from home!" Which reminds one that a home, or at least lodgings, for the new chum are the first necessity.

Well, there are hotels and boarding-houses in plenty. Professional "diggings" as understood in the old country do not exist. This, to my mind, is hardly in the nature of a calamity. For the actor who does not know the country the best plan (and one frequently followed) is to put up at a decent hotel for a week or two, and meanwhile to look around for a boarding-house best suited to his particular requirements. First-class hotel accommodation in Sydney can be got for two and a half or three guineas a week, upwards, and the newcomer can have his choice of the Australia, Wentworth, Arcadia, or Tattersall's, where generally a special professional tariff will be quoted. Boarding-houses (any amount of them) can be got for twenty-five and thirty shillings weekly. These prices obtain in all other of the cities. The new arrival will find most things a little dearer in price than in England, more especially clothes - a most important item when the dressing of modern parts comes into consideration. Ordinary theatrical requisites, such as grease-paints, spirit-gum, soap, powder, etc., are easily procurable at a fraction or so over home prices. Wigs are considerably more expensive; but good wigs are expensive all the world over.

The theatres, commodious and comfortable in front, compare behind the scenes most favourably with those in the large towns at home. Dressing-room accommodation may be likened to Mercutio's wound - "It is enough - it will serve." Actors hardly acclimatised may be pardoned for feeling somewhat "cribbed, cabined, and confined" when the thermometer jumps to 95 degrees in the shade, but under cooler conditions the rooms are comfortable enough. The stages are for the most part roomy, and manned by working staffs which I affirm cannot be beaten anywhere. Indeed, I have never seen scenes (and in the very heaviest of productions) handled with such dexterity. The "productions" themselves are, by the way, in every respect quite equal to those of London. In fact, and to sum up, Australian theatres are run as efficiently as the race-tracks of the country, and those admittedly approach perfection.

The season in Sydney being ended (it may last only a few weeks or three or four months), a move must be made to another city of the Commonwealth, and this "move" wherever the next town may be will prove a pretty formidable affair, for the principal cities are very far apart in Australia. Distance is literally no object to the native; the vastness of his continent has never presented any difficulties to his exploration of it, and the actor-explorer will soon accept the long journeys quite as a matter of course. As I write, a little trip of three thousand miles or so is being taken by the J. C. Williamson pantomime company, viz., from Sydney (New South Wales) to Perth (West Australia)! Say that Melbourne follows Sydney as, of course, will very frequently happen. That means a train journey only of just on 600 miles. Leaving Sydney on a Thursday night at 8 o'clock (the popular night for starting a season in Australia is Saturday; an artist's first appearance and the commencement of his engagement in the country will therefore invariably date from that day), the traveller reaches Melbourne at 1p.m. the next afternoon, having nice time for rest and a look round before the opening performance. The accommodation on the train, as also on all steamers provided by the management, is first-class on all occasions. Sleeping berths, if required, have to be paid for out of the actor's own pocket.

The Melbourne theatres are, taking them all round, on a slightly larger scale than those of Sydney, as befits a city that boasts a slightly larger population. The principal are: Her Majesty's, Princess's (popularly known as the "Princess"), both of which are managed by the all-pervading J. C. Williamson firm; Theatre Royal (which is leased by the young but decidedly go-ahead firm of Clarke, Meynell, and Gunn, and is the firm's headquarters); the King's, a commodious and comparatively new playhouse, built for and run by Mr. William Anderson. There is also, a smaller theatre, as its name implies, The Bijou; and close at hand the Rickards Music Hall, known in this city as the Opera House. All of these places of amusement are close to one another, being situated in Bourke Street (a broad and spacious thoroughfare at the top of which stand the Federal Houses of Parliament), or in streets that intersect it. There are, of course, many buildings devoted to picture shows - several of them having been specially built for that thriving class of entertainment.

Hotel and boarding-house accommodation in Melbourne is extensive. The former may be selected from Menzies's (the popular rendezvous of the city, where most visiting "stars" put up; the esteemed proprietor's wife, as Miss Dorothy Vane, will be remembered by playgoers in England for her charming performances in comic opera under the D'Oyly Carte management), Scott's, Port Phillip Club, White Hart - all adjacent to the various theatres. To those actors who do not object to living some distance away from the scene of their daily labours the alluring seaside spot of St. Kilda may be recommended. It is a suburb three miles out of Melbourne, and can be reached by tram or train (single fare by either 3d.). Splendid accommodation is provided at the George Hotel, where at various times many of the leading theatrical lights have been guests; and there are boarding houses of the best class in great numberer.

On one travelling south another 500 miles Adelaide, the South Australian capital, is reached. Though probably not so far advanced in matters pertaining to the stage as either Melbourne or Sydney, Adelaide (the "city of churches," as it is termed) is just as appreciative of anything good. It boasts only one playhouse (the Theatre Royal), which is hired by the various managers as they require dates. Sharing terms, as understood in England, are rarely arranged for in Australia. There are the usual variety houses and picture shows. These latter are open on Sunday nights as well as weekdays, and are splendidly patronised. The prices are lowered for the occasion, admission being 1s. and 6d. At one hall I visited on a Sunday evening I was astonished to find that the entire music hall programme was gone through as on an ordinary night, the only difference being that the performers wore their everyday clothes. This struck me as supplying a curious commentary on the so-called "city of churches."

Hotels (near the theatre) are Black Bull, Criterion, and York - all comfortable and reasonable in tariff. Having played in these three cities, the actor will acknowledge that he has had little to complain about; indeed, unless he be the veriest hypochondriac, he should enjoy every hour of his stay amid the beautiful surroundings that each boasts.

Visits are invariably paid to the smaller towns also, no matter how big the attraction or how large the personnel of the company. These visits, taken en route to the capital cities, are for only two or three nights as a rule, a different piece in the repertory being played each evening. In New Zealand, it may here be mentioned, the actor must be prepared for a number of one-night stands; but the tour in the Dominion is, however, always a short one.

The player from England will be much interested in seeing some of the towns associated with the first great gold rush in Australia, such as Bendigo and Ballarat. He will marvel at the solidly built and well laid out appearance they present nowadays, remembering that it is only within an ordinary life-time that they have sprung up. On the outskirts are still to be seen the shafts of the gold mines - in Bendigo one of the deepest mines in the world is still working in the principal street, cheek by jowel with the town hall while the city thoroughfares, with their electric trams, theatres, and hotels, are quite up to date. Here, too, in these golden cities, will be a chance for the observant actor to study some new and varied types of character on their native heath, so to speak, such as the miner, the "Swaggie" or "Sundowner," and the ancient Chinese who pitched their tents on the diggings in the old days, and whose encampment still remains.

Bendigo's theatre is named the Princess, and its principal hotels are the Shamrock, City Club, Royal Mail. Ballarat ("the city of statues" as well as gold mines) has for theatre Her Majesty's, and no better hotels are to be found in the Commonwealth than Craig's, the George, and Carlyon's. From 5s. to 10s. a day is the ordinary charge to professionals.

The general characteristics of all Australian cities do not vary much, many hundreds of miles though they may be apart. Thus Brisbane, Queensland's capital, may be said to resemble in various ways Perth, the capital of Western Australia, though the whole width of the vast Australian continent is between the two places. So having played in one city the actor thereafter feels quite at home in all, the same thing applying to New Zealand and Tasmania.

One has plenty to occupy one's mind on such an extensive tour - there is so much to do and so much to see. The work will prove the actor's versatility, and, given conscientiousness, will improve his acting, as the journeys and wanderings by the sea should improve his general health. All the actors in Australia have a bronzed skin and generally robust appearance as if they thoroughly enjoyed life.

Wherever he goes he of the theatre can have a good time. Golf, cricket, yachting and turf clubs open their hospitable doors to him, and though a small section of the Press cries out against the imported actor - not unnaturally arguing that the native article is quite capable of the best work - newspapers on the whole will be kind and generous to him wherever he appears. Criticisms in such journals as the "Sydney Morning Herald" or "Daily Telegraph" and a few others are scrupulously fair and honest, and will be held in esteem. The Melbourne newspapers the "Age" and "Argus" are likewise wonderfully well informed; indeed, these critics are real students of the drama, and their notices are quite unbiassed. But "there are others," though they need not trouble the artist who pleases his manager and his audiences. The critics naturally have a warm corner in their hearts for their own actors and actresses, but the English performer, though effort of his will be very keenly scrutinised and discussed, gets fair treatment on the whole.

The newspapers are read with avidity by all classes in the colonies, and the actor from home who is written about, say in Melbourne, will find - such is the curiosity of the native regarding anybody fresh from the mother country - that when he reaches Auckland, N.Z., he is already quite well known there by reputation. There is one weekly journal in particular boasting an enormous circulation, which is to be found in every corner of Australasia - the Sydney "Bulletin." Never, I should say, has there existed a paper with such fearlessly independent views. A notice therein for the actor therefore, good or bad, may be depended upon to be the genuine expression of the writer's opinion, and the English artist may be accounted fortunate and deserving indeed if he or she is accorded a line of praise. I may confess that personally I am very pleased when the "Bulletin" does not slate me.

Although the Australian dramatist has not yet arisen (I have no wish to do the most excellent native writers of melodrama an injustice by this remark), it cannot be gainsaid that there are many sound and clever all-round artists to be found among the native-born actors - if an imported actor may venture an opinion. The portraits of some of the better known, which may be taken as representative, performers of to-day are reproduced.

Turning to the managers who have done, and are still doing, so much for theatrical art in the colonies, first honours naturally fall to Mr. J. C. Williamson, head of the world-renowned firm that bears his name. Since Mr. Williamson first arrived in Australia with the felicitously named play "Struck Oil," playgoers have been provided by him with every kind of attraction - the very best that money and astute management could procure. Australians are greatly indebted to him for the quality of their amusement; the name of J. C. Williamson on the bill is a guarantee that the entertainment will be of the highest class. No money is spared, nothing is scimped, in any Williamson production, while the firm's staff of lieutenants in every department, though thoroughly business-like, are kind and courteous to all.

Next to Mr. Williamson, the oldest manager in Australia is Mr. Bland Holt, a son of the well-known English actor-manager, the late Mr. Clarence Holt. Mr. Holt'.s productions are always on the colossal, Drury Lane scale; indeed, he has staged most of the big Drury Lane successes. He personally is one of the biggest favourites in the colonies, both as manager and actor, as well as being one of the most respected of men. His company form always a big "draw." Some members of it have been under the one management for twenty years, and no happier engagement were possible.

Mr. William Anderson is a native manager of a later date who is also very successful as a purveyor of sound melodrama, in which his wife (Miss Eugenie Duggan) is a popular "star." Mr. Anderson's ventures are many, and uniformly well supported by the public. He always has one or two companies on the road, and is the lessee and manager of several theatres and other places of amusement.

The firm of Clarke, Meynell, and Gunn, though it has only been established about five years, has unquestionably made its mark. Mr. Clyde Meynell is an Englishman who has had a large experience of theatrical management in his native country. Unfortunately, Mr. John Gunn succumbed to pneumonia at the early age of forty on October 20, 1909. Sir Rupert Clarke is the other surviving partner.