“On the road: on the boards” – Irish plays and travelling theatre companies in colonial New Zealand, 1880–1895

Abstract

Irish culture came to many New Zealand towns as plays performed by travelling theatre companies. Between 1880 and the advent of the “picture show men”, there were regular visits to circuits such as “Gisborne, Napier, Palmerston, Wanganui, Hawera, New Plymouth, Wellington, Christchurch and all the more important towns southwards to Invercargill” by companies such as The Pollard Opera Company and The Greenwood Family. Some were highly professional, such as the Brough Boucicault Company, which only toured the major towns; others were more of the “fit-up” type, such as the Burford-Clinton Company, which featured Grattan Riggs. Touring was customary and could prove lucrative. Frank Norton, who was with the Dobson-Kennedy Company, once described New Zealand as a “country consisting of 51 towns and 43 theatre companies”. This article will assess the Irish contribution to Colonial life made by travelling theatre companies’ performance of Irish plays as evidenced by programmes, circuits, seasons and production values reported in the New Zealand newspapers of the day. It will argue that Irish plays performed the significant cultural and political functions of dramatising the uneasy tension between institutional power and individual potential that characterised the colonial condition in which New Zealand audiences found themselves.

Keywords:

• Irish theatre
• colonial culture
• New Zealand
• touring companies
• entertainment
• imperialism
• nationalism
• melodrama

Notes

1. OED Online, s.v. “culture,” updated June 2008; OED Online, s.v. “civilized,” updated November 2010; Williams, “Civilization,” 48–50; Williams, “Culture,” 76–82; Rothman, “The Meaning of Culture.”

2. Arnold, Culture and Anarchy, 87–229.

3. Ballantyne, Webs of Empire.

4. “Explore All Newspapers.”

5. Anderson, Imagined Communities.

6. King, Penguin History of New Zealand, 236, 290.

7. Thompson, Adult Education in New Zealand, 357–61, quoted in Verran, “Mechanics’ Institutes,” 7.

8. Ibid., 1.

9. Barr, Auckland Public Libraries, 2–3, quoted in Verran, “Mechanics’ Institutes,” 8.

10. Foucault, Religion and Culture; Foucault, Politics, Philosophy, Culture, Interiors; OED Online, s.v. “culture war” [in sense (a) after German Kulturkampf], updated June 2008.

11. “Cinema.”

12. Grey River Argus, January 3, 1891, 2.

13. New Zealand Herald, May 16, 1903, 4.

14. In April 1897, e.g. much of the central business district of Napier was flooded after several days of torrential rain. See Napier City Council, “About Napier.”

15. Kuch, “Irishness, Australasian Colonial Theatre,” 203–16; Kuch, “‘Irishness’ on the New Zealand Stage,” 99–118; Kuch, “The Irish and the Australasian Colonial Stage,” 105–18; Kuch, “Re-Awakening the ‘Wake’,” 137–53; Kuch, “Irish Playwrights,” 90–100.

16. “Our Home Letter,” New Zealand Herald, February 2, 1880, 2; “Amusements,” Auckland Star, June 18–23, 1881.

17. “Amusements,” Auckland Star, June 2, 1881, 1; “Les Cloches de Corneville,” Observer, June 18, 1881, 435; “Interprovincial,” Timaru Herald, August 22, 1881, 2. For reviews of the Auckland premiere of Pinafore, see “Liliputian Opera Company,” New Zealand Herald, June 7, 1881, 5; Auckland Star, June 7, 1881, 3; New Zealand Herald, June 9, 1881, 5.

18. Ps. 8:2 (AV); Matt. 21:16 (AV).

19. The Liliputian Company continued to tour as late as 1895. Otago Witness, September 5, 1895, 37.

20. Hawkes Bay Herald, March 18, 1898, 3.

21. An adaptation of Procida Bucalossi’s Les Manteaux Noir.

22. P. Rompter, “Wellington Wing Whispers,” Otago Witness, January 21, 1897, 39. A railway line linking Palmerston North to Wanganui had opened in 1878 and the Marton to New Plymouth line in 1885. The west coast tour was scheduled as

Blenheim, February 23–27; Nelson, March 2–8; Westport, March 10–13; Greymouth, March 15–20; Reefton, March 22–24; Hokitika, March 25–29; Greymouth (return), March 30 and 31; Westport, April 2 and 3. Back again in Wellington on April 7, then on to Auckland for Easter Monday, and on May 22 the company is booked to open in the Theatre Royal, Adelaide.

23. Call Boy, “Footlight Flashes,” Evening Star, June 4, 1897, 4; “Local and General,” Hastings Standard, October 13, 1898, 2.

24. Prospero, “Dramatic Gossip,” Press, December 8, 1898, 2.

25. “Amusements,” Auckland Star, June 1, 1881, 1.

26. “Advertisement,” North Otago Times, June 15, 1898, 3.

27. Djin Djin: A Japanese Fairytale opened in Melbourne at the Princess Theatre at the end of December 1895 after the cast and crew had agreed to take a pay cut. See Leann Richards, “Djin Djin.”

28. Call Boy, “Footlight Flashes,” Evening Star, July 28, 1897, 3.

29. Advertised in New Zealand as Djin Djin: A Japanese Fairytale.

30. Richards, “A Bankrupt.”

31. “The Greenwood Family Concerts,” New Zealand Herald, February 28, 1887, 6.

32. “The Greenwood Concerts: To the Editor,” New Zealand Herald, March 17, 1887, 3.

33. New Zealand Herald, October 15, 1887, 4. The programme for the Farewell Concert is given at “Amusements,” New Zealand Herald, October 6, 1887, 8; a review is at “The Greenwood Family’s Concert,” New Zealand Herald, October 7, 1887, 6.

34. Taranaki Herald, October 14, 1887, 2; “Dramatic and Musical,” New Zealand Herald, October 15, 1887, 4; Feilding Star, October 27, 1887, 2; “Advertisements,” Evening Post, October 29, 1887, 3; review of Wellington concert, “The Greenwood Family Concerts,” Evening Post, November 15, 1887, 2.

35. “The Greenwood Family,” Auckland Star, November 30, 1887, 5; Evening Post, December 3, 1887, 2; “Wellington Notes,” Press, December 7, 1887, 2.

36. “Amusements. The Greenwood Family,” Sydney Morning Herald, June 1, 1888, 8.

37. “The Greenwood Family,” Sydney Morning Herald, June 12, 1888, 8; The Freeman’s Journal, June 16, 1888, 19; The Sydney Mail and the New South Wales Advertiser, June 16, 1888, 1278.

38. “Dramatic and Musical,” New Zealand Herald, June 23, 1888, 4.

39. Australian Star, July 14, 1888, 4.

40. “Dramatic and Musical,” New Zealand Herald, August 18, 1888, 4.

41. The Sydney Morning Herald review was reprinted in the New Zealand Herald, June 18, 1885, 5. The Sydney reviews were also quoted in the Evening Post, June 18, 1888, 3; Marlborough Express, June 20, 1888, 2; Daily Telegraph, June 20, 1888, 2; Evening Star, June 21, 1888, 2; Wanganui Herald, June 22, 1888, 2; Bruce Herald, June 22, 1888, 3; West Coast Times, June 23, 1888, 2; Wanganui Chronicle, June 28, 1888, 2; “Notes by Pasquin,” Otago Witness, June 29, 1888, 28; “Dramatic Notes,” Press, July 4, 1888, 3.

42. “Miss Maribel Greenwood Starring,” Evening Post, September 7, 1888, 2; “Dramatic Gossip” by Orpheus, Press, August 28, 1888, 3.

43. Wanganui Herald, December 9, 1880, 3.

44. New Zealand Herald, March 28, 1881, 4.

45. “Theatre Royal,” Star, November 12, 1880, 3: “Mr Riggs impersonates four characters, the main one, Suil Gair; Con, an idiot; Mrs Hanbury, the New York boarding-house-keeper; and Mr Maguire, an Irishman in America.”

46. New Zealand Herald, March 28, 1881, 4.

47. “The Critic,” Observer, January 1, 1881, 146.

48. Wanganui Chronicle, December 15, 1880, 2.

49. “The Critic,” Observer, February 19, 1881, 234.

50. Ibid.: “the acting in [the plays] struck me as in no way remarkable.”

51. Ibid.; “Brief Mention,” Observer, February 26, 1881, 242.

52. “Theatre Royal. The Irish Detective,” Star, November 22, 1880, 3.

53. Cited in Childs and Williams, Introduction to Post-Colonial Theory, 131, Bhabha quoting Lacan, 90. See also Bhabha, “Articulating the Archaic”; and Bhabha, “Of Mimicry and Man.”

54. New Zealand Tablet 4, no. 190 (November 17, 1876): 6.

55. “Oscar Wilde, Poems,” Otago Daily Times, February 13, 1890, supp., 2; “Extraordinary Thought-Reading Experiment,” Hawkes Bay Herald, February 17, 1890, 3; Failure of Salomé, “Musical and Dramatic,” New Zealand Herald, May 6, 1893, supp., 4; Tour of America, “Theatrical and Musical Notes,” Otago Daily Times, March 15, 1882, 3; friendship with Lord Alfred Douglas, “London Gossip,” Evening Star, October 9, 1893, 4; reviews of The Green Carnation, Auckland Star, November 17, 1894, supp., 2, and Evening Star, November 17, 1894, supp., 3; “London Gossip,” Evening Star, November 24, 1894, supp., 1; “Oscar Wilde on Women,” New Zealand Herald, August 25, 1894, supp., 4.

56. “Musical and Dramatic,” New Zealand Herald, December 16, 1893, supp., 4.

57. “Advertisements,” Press, January 20, 1893, 6.

58. “The Brough and Boucicault Company,” Otago Daily Times, November 12, 1894, 2; “Amusements,” Evening Star, November 14, 1894, 3.

59. “The Lorgnette,” Observer, November 24, 1894, 9; “Jottings from Wellington,” Wairarapa Times, December 20, 1894, 3.

60. “Princess Theatre. Lady Windermere’s Fan,” Otago Daily Times, November 26, 1894, 3. See “Society Plays. To the Editor of the Press,” Press, December 7, 1894, 6.

61. “Lady Windermere’s Fan,” Otago Witness, November 29, 1894, 37.

62. “Princess Theatre. Lady Windermere’s Fan,” Otago Daily Times, November 26, 1894, 3; “Theatre Royal,” Press, December 5, 1894, 5; “The Brough-Boucicault Season,” Star, December 5, 1894, 3; “The Brough and Boucicault Season,” Evening Post, December 17, 1894, 2.

63. “Princess Theatre. Lady Windermere’s Fan,” Otago Daily Times, November 26, 1894, 3; P. Rompter, “Wellington Wing Whispers,” Otago Witness, December 27, 1894, 37.

64. The other plays performed on this tour were: The Case of the Rebellious Susan; The Amazons; Pinero’s The Second Mrs. Tanqueray; Dandy Dick; and Poulton’s Niobe.

65. Wilde v. Douglas (Libel), March 2, 1895; March 9, 1895; April 3–5, 1895; Wilde was arrested April 6, 1895 at 6.10 pm; 1st Trial: Regina v. Wilde, April 26, 1895, resulting in a non-verdict (the vote was 10-2 or 11-1); Bail of £5000 was set on May 7, 1895; Retrial: Regina v. Wilde, May 21, 1895 – sentence two years hard labour. The Dunedin critic was the only one to refer to Wilde’s fall from grace, and then only indirectly when he observed that a comment made by “the most level headed of the characters” that “not a year passes but somebody disappears” from society was “strangely prophetic.” Otago Daily Times, November 28, 1895, 6.

66. François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac (September 15, 1613–March 17, 1680).