The first theatrical performance in Australia, George Farquar's 'The Recruiting Officer', perfomed by the convicts of Sydney Cover to celebrate the birthday of
King George III, became the subject of Thomas Keneally's novel 'The Playmaker' and Timberlake Wertenbaker's play, 'Our Country's Good'.
Robert Jordan brings to life in brilliant form the shadowy figures that created this and other entertainments; revealing that they were not, as had been
thought, the initiative of soldiers and settlers nostalgic for home but of hard-living, quick-thinking convicts. Here is a society creating its own rules,
its own class system based on enterprise and opportunism, in which justice was arbitrary and nepotism rife.
Robert Jordan combed through British and colonial newspapers, official and private records to uncover the lives of these enterprising men and women. He
reveals previously unknown theatre ventures and greatly extends out knowledge of others, reconstructing them by reference to the provincial British theatre
culture out of which they came. In the process we meet a gallery of characters, from Sara McCann, London madam and comforter of a royal duke, to William
Richards, sentimental thief of theatrical costumes, and James Lawrence, cardship, standover man and professional actor.
A substantial appendix provides research material on 42 convicts and soldiers known to have been active in the theatres before 1800.
Contents:
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Preliminary Notes
Introduction
1. Britons Abroad: The Early Convicts and heir Theatrical Background
2. Theatre in Sydney to 1809: A Chronological Account
3. The Sydney Theatre 1796-1804/7: The Playhouse and Company Organisation
4. The Sydney Theatre 1796-1804/7: Actors, Audiences and Others
5. The Theatres of Norfolk Island 1793-1806
6. Convict Theatre 1807-1830
7. 'Gallant Captains': Hyndman, Maconochie and the Fading of Convict Theatre
Conclusion
Appendix A. 'Dramatis personae': Performers and Others Associated with the
Theatres 1794-1800
Appendix B. Longer Notes to Chapters 1-7
Appendix C. Recorded Productions at Robert Sidaway's Theatre, Sydney, and a Emu
Bay
Notes
Bibliography
Index
List of Subscribers
