William Orr

This is thestory of the Phillp Theatre and the Doncaster Theatre Restaurant as realised by the visionary William Orr and his partner Eric Duckworth, a gay couple, who came to Australia in 1953.

Orr was a Scottish-born impresario with a background of directing and theatre administration and the craze sweeping England: topical satiric revue. He was able to get the very best of Australian talent to perform in his revues. A full list of his revues will be presented later in a future article.

Along the way, we will take a look at vaudeville and pantomime and ragtime, plus the early-stage musicals, and the theatres that they played in. We will also look at Sydney’s Neutral Bay Music Hall and the Bowl Music Hall in the Melbourne CBD. It’s all about the laughter and fun that all these different venues provided for their patrons.

First, we must begin where it all stated.

19th century engraving of the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens

New York Public Library, New York

Ancient Greek Theatre

Greek theatre dates to around 700 BC, with the first open air theatres built in 600 BC. These theatres, known as theatrons, seated thousands of patrons. You may think that the word ‘theatre’ derives from the French language, if so, you are wrong … it derives from the Greek word ‘theatron’.

A theatron consisted of a vast seating area in a semi-circular configuration, with a large stage area and a skene. A skene was either a tent or a wooden structure in front of the stage where the show could be directed … with an orchestra or ‘dancing place’, where the comedians or actors in a tragedy performed.

The earliest Greek theatre can be traced back to the Minoan civilization on Crete. One of the oldest surviving examples is the Theatre of Dionysus, built on the south slope of the Acropolis in Athens in 600 BC.

Greek theatre appealed to the masses. The authors of Greek comedy, tragedy and satire included Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes.

The actors in ancient Greek theatre wore masks to express human emotions and portray history.

Greek theatre was one of the oldest forms of Art in human history. Many of the plays are still adapted and performed around the world, hence today we have the Performing Arts in all its forms.

A fool with his master, from a 15th century Dutch illuminated manuscript

British Library, London

19th century depiction of a court jester—‘Keying Up’ (1875) by William Merritt Chase

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia

The Kings, the Queens, and the Court Jesters

Now we move through the centuries to the year 802 AD.

The Anglo-Saxon King in this year was Egbert, King of England, who reigned from 802 until 839. In 871, the reign of Alfred the Great began, firstly as King of Wessex, following the death of his brother Aethelred, and from 886 as King of the Anglo-Saxons.

The year 802 was also when the Vikings—who were Scandinavian pirates—began their conquest of Britain.

“The story of the Vikings in Britain is one of conquest, expulsion, extortion, and reconquest. Their lasting legacy was the formation of the independent kingdoms of England and Scotland.” (Professor Edward James)

Then there was the Court Jester.

Jesters and Court Fools were highly intelligent. They often knew more about what was going on in the Court than the reigning king himself!

Wikipedia provides a good summary:

“A jester, court jester, fool or joker was a member of the household of a nobleman or a monarch employed to entertain guests during royal court. Jesters were also travelling performers … Many royal courts throughout English royal history employed entertainers and most had professional fools, sometimes called ‘licensed fools’. Entertainment included music, storytelling, and physical comedy. Fool Societies, or groups of nomadic entertainers, were often hired to perform acrobatics and juggling.”

Court jesters were generally men, however, some women also became ‘jesteresses’.

In Ancient Rome, professional jesters were called ‘balatrones’. They were paid handsomely for their jests, and the tables of the wealthy were usually open to them for the sake of the amusement they gracefully provided.

Sometimes court jesters / fools were disabled persons abiding in the homes of noblemen and the Courts of Kings, thereby getting the protection they needed from their peers and others.

Stuart Robson and W.H. Crane as the twin Dromio in The Comedy of Errors, 1879

Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Laurence Olivier as King Lear, with Alec Guinness as Fool, Old Vic Theatre, London, 1946

 

Shakespeare

Now we move up the centuries to Shakespeare. The Shakespeare fool is a recurring character type. In Shakespeare’s great tragedy of King Lear, Lear, the King of Britain was more interested in ‘Fool’, his court jester, than his mistress.

Percy Bysshe Shelley called King Lear ‘The most perfect specimen of the dramatic art existing in the world.’

We will now have a look at The Comedy of Errors. This comic play was one of Shakespeare’s earliest works. The story involved two sets of twin brothers, the Dromio of Syracuse and Dromio of Ephesus and the Antipholus of Syracuse and Antipholus of Ephesus, separated at birth, but now mature young men meeting each other for the first time. It was a play for all time and similar situations still happen today.

Jesters had the right to speak when everyone else had to remain silent. When placed in tragedies they were a comic relief to the audience and a simple diversion from what was often a very tense situation.

Here’s a list of some of the jesters / fools in Shakespeare’s plays:

Lavache: All’s Well That Ends Well

Touchstone: As You Like It

The two Domio: A Comedy of Errors

Citizen: Julius Caesar

Costard: Love’s Labour’s Lost

Dogberry: Much Ado About Nothing

Clown: Othello

Feste: Twelfth Night

Autolycus: The Winter’s Tale

18th century painting by Giovanni Domenico Ferretti depicting Harlequin and Columbine, two characters of the commedia dell'arte

Christie’s

Cover of 1890s Christmas pantomime book showing the characters of the Harlequinade

Wikimedia Commons

Pantomime

The word ‘Pantomime’ was adapted from the Latin word ‘Pantomimus’.

Pantomimes were musical comedy stage productions, for family entertainment. It was generally presented as Christmas entertainment. They are still performed today, notably in the UK.

Throughout the late 19th and early 20th century, many Sydney theatres presented pantomimes. These included the Palace Theatre in Pitt Street and the Grand Opera House (later the Tivoli) near Central. Also Fullers Roxy in Castlereagh Street, which was renamed the Mayfair. Another popular venue was the Hippodrome in the Haymarket (before the building was converted to a cinema, the Capitol Theatre, and is now a popular live venue). Some of the most spectacular pantomimes were staged by J.C. Williamson Ltd at the Theatre Royal and Her Majesty’s.

Pantomime has a long theatrical history in western culture dating back to the era of classical theatre. It evolved in part from the 16th century commedia dell’arte of Italy, and other European and British stage traditions such as 17th century masques and music hall.

Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre: where panto began

 

Harlequinade was an important part of early pantomime. Ancient Roman pantomime productions usually based in myth, featured a solo male dancer, clad in a long silk tunic and a short mantle that was often used as a prop accompanied by a sung libretto (dance story).

John Rich in London was the real originator of Christmas pantomime at Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre. It was in 1717 that the term ‘pantomime’ first appeared in the playbills of that theatre.

With the modern pantomime, the Harlequinade had vanished in favour of the comedian.

“What a strange, admirable, absurd, inscrutable thing is our English pantomime,” wrote George Augustus Sala.

Cover of the souvenir booklet for J.C. Williamson’s 1907–08 Christmas pantomime Humpty Dumpty

National Library of Australia, Canberra

Advertisement for Babes in the Wood at London’s Stoll Theatre, 1941

ebay

In 1941–42, pantomime broke all box office records in London, the three shows running grossed around 20,000 pounds per week. Twice daily, the 2,500 patrons filled the Stoll theatre, Kingsway to see Babes in the Wood. At Christmas 1942, Tom Arnold ran eight pantomimes, employing 1,056 people.

Pantomime was huge business coast to coast in America as well, especially in New York.

Now, where do you think this is all going? Find out in the next instalment!