Australian musical From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Bunyip, also known by the longer title The Enchantment of Fairy Princess Wattle Blossom, was written by Ella Palzier Campbell (aka Ella Airlie). The pantomime was a highly successful musical comedy that toured Australia for a decade within Fuller Brothers theatre circuit.[1] The show was produced by Sydney entrepreneur Nat Philips. The premiere of the show ran for at least 97 performances[2] and was revived several times over the following decade.
| The Bunyip | |
|---|---|
| The enchantment of fairy princess Wattle Blossom | |
Queenie Paul dressed as principal boy 'Jack' | |
| Music | Herbert De Pinna Vince Courtney Fred Monument Marsh Little James Kendis |
| Lyrics | Herbert De Pinna Vince Courtney Fred Monument Marsh Little James Kendis |
| Basis | Original Australiana by Ella Airlie |
| Productions | 1916 Adelaide 1917 Sydney 1917 Melbourne 1918 Brisbane 1920 Perth 1922 Adelaide 1924 Melbourne 1924 Sydney |
Music was supplied by a number of Australian stage personalities including Vince Courtney, Herbert De Pinna and James Kendis. A Melbourne National Gallery student P. Cohen was enlisted to paint the sets with Australian flowers,[3] namely wattle and waratah, on costumes also.[4]
The story opens with a bushfire in which all the bush creatures are bought out into the open. Then it deals with the wanderings of princess Wattle Blossom, who falls into the hands of the Bush Gnomes, a proud race with a terrible way of doing things. The Lord High Gnome decrees that the Princess shall be turned into a bunyip, and this transformation takes place on the stage.[11] The fairy princess is then rescued by the principal boy from the race of bush gnomes. A well-received stage effect was a shadow play of girls apparently disrobing behind a backlit screen, over which the (apparently) removed clothing was thrown.[12][13]
The play relied heavily on comic stereotypes of the time, including a Chinese cook, bumbling Jewish clowns, fierce Aboriginal warriors, and a drunken Australian lout – all contending with Wattle Blossom, the fairy princess in the original story.
The cast changed across several venues. For example, in Adelaide the crowd was treated to a boomerang thrower safely tossing weapons above their heads[23]
The play was embraced with patriotic fervour.[28] From 1917, the show drew crowded houses.[29] The theme song was adopted by schools in New South Wales and sales of the sheet music were phenomenal.[4]
The press was unaffected by a typical Australian workers dispute between management and two stage hands who objected to the behaviour of a backstage colleague.[30]
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