Australia

 THE ARCADIANS IN AUSTRALIA

Some 11 months after its London premiere, The Arcadians received it Australian premiere at Melbourne’s Theatre Royal on 26 March 1910 in a production staged by Clarke and Meynell’s New English Comic Opera Company, with direction by Charles A. Wenman, musical direction by Victor Champion and scenery by Phil Goatcher. Sir Rupert Clarke provided the firm’s finances and assisted with engaging performers and obtaining the rights to the company's productions, while Clyde Meynell was the impresario responsible for their staging. The British-born Meynell (née Clyde van Straubonzee), first came to Australia in 1903 as general manager for the Julius Knight–Maud Jeffries company, touring under the aegis of J.C. Williamson, having gained experience as both an actor and theatre manager in Britain. He then decided to stay on and in 1906 went into partnership with Irish actor and stage manager John Gunn, (who had first visited Australia with J.L. Toole’s company in 1890 and returned in 1904), to produce plays in Australia. After taking out a 10 year lease of the Theatre Royal in Melbourne in November 1907 and a lengthy lease of the Criterion Theatre in Sydney, they then branched out into staging musical productions and pantomimes as well, with financial backing from Clarke and Melbourne entrepreneur, John Wren (who later withdrew from the partnership). They also sponsored tours by visiting overseas actors and actresses, and it was while overseeing Oscar Asche and his actress wife, Lily Brayton’s season of plays at the Criterion Theatre in October 1909, that John Gunn died of pneumonia in Sydney at the age of 39 and Sir Rupert Clarke subsequently assumed a more prominent role in the partnership as co-managing director.

Meynell & Gunn

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

Sir Rupert Clarke (c.1905)

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

Clarke and Meynell’s Australian production of The Arcadians starred Sydney-born Maie Sydney (née May Peach), in the role of ‘Sombra’, Essie Perrin as ‘Chrysea’, Gertrude Gilliam as ‘Eileen Cavanagh’ and British baritone Harold Thorley as ‘Jack Meadows’, with British comedians James Cromwell as ‘James Smith/Simplicitas’ and Tom Walls as the doleful jockey, ‘Peter Doody’. Walls was then in the early stages of his acting career and would later achieve fame in the Ben Travers series of farces at London’s Aldwych Theatre in the 1920s and early ‘30s, and became a renowned character actor in British film comedies of the 1930s and ‘40s. In a fine example of “Life imitating Art”, while in Australia Walls also rode as a gentleman jockey in races at both Moonee Valley racecourse in Melbourne (achieving second place riding Corntax in the Corinthian Handicap in May 1910) and at Randwick in Sydney, with at least one “first past the post” to his credit, and in later years he was granted a trainer's license by the Jockey Club of Great Britain in 1922, and his racehorse ‘April the Fifth’ won the 1932 English Derby at Epsom Downs.

Harry Julius caricature for "The Bulletin"

National Library of Australia, Canberra

Tom Walls in the 1920s

An enthusiastic horseman off the stage, if not on!

Supporting players in The Arcadians included Percy Clifton as ‘Father Time’, English eccentric dancer Arthur Edwards as ‘Percy French’, Charlie Stone as ‘Bobby’, Nellie Kavanagh as ‘Mrs Smith’ and Conway Wingfield as ‘Sir George Paddock’, while Sir Rupert Clarke’s racehorse ‘Dreamland’ (winner of the 1901 Australian Cup), put in an appearance as the winning horse ‘Deuce’ at the close of Act 2. The 16 year-old former champion turned stud horse was a great favourite with the company, and he received just as many gifts from the audience as did the principals.

Tap here and here to view the full cast list at the Theatre Royal and here to view the production credits.

For The Arcadians, Clyde Meynell also brought out four English showgirls to take part in the production. Showgirls were then a regular feature of London musical comedies of the period, but not on the Australian stage at that time. They were neither singers, dancers nor actresses, but were basically glamorous models who paraded around the stage elegantly gowned in the latest fashions as part of the ensemble, to attract the attention of not only the male members of the audience, but also the fashion conscious female members as well. There was some criticism in the Melbourne Press at the time at Meynell’s decision to import the showgirls from Britain, rather than recruiting them from amongst the equally beauteous local Australian girls. Another fashion innovation introduced into the show was the wearing of so-called “Chanticler hats” by members of the female ensemble in the second Act’s Askwood racecourse scene, which were then new to Australia. These were large picture hats of the period, which were decorated with bird feathers and facsimiles of bird’s heads and bodies as well. Melbourne newspapers reported that a showgirl from the production had worn her Chanticler hat in public while strolling around the fashionable “Block” in Collins Street one Saturday morning in April, and was subsequently mobbed by a crowd of curious onlookers, before taking refuge in a nearby shop, and at length, escaping out of the back entrance – all good publicity for the show!

In a newspaper interview, Sir Rupert Clarke commented: “As for the dresses, they are simply superb, and are sure to excite envy amongst the fair sex. Some of them cost as much as seventy guineas, and in the racecourse scene at Goodwood, which takes in the lawn and part of the stand, the value of the costumes worn will be fully £2500.” [$300,280 in today's Australian currency.]

These reproduced those seen in the London production for which the programme credits read:

The Arcadian Costumes and their Accessories designed by Wilhelm, and made by Alias, London.
The Ladies’ Modern Dresses—Designed and Made by Alias & Jay, London; Duciet, Worth & Paquin, Paris; Buckley & Nunn, Melbourne

The musical numbers in the Australian production conformed with those in the standard published Vocal Score and included “All Down Piccadilly” (aka “Naughty Number One Mayfair”) and “Bring me a rose” in the third act, which also included an interpolated dance duet composed by the show's Musical Director, Victor Champion, “London and Arcadia” arranged and performed by Arthur Edwards with Essie Perrin, which was described in a later review thus: “London is typified by a cake-walk and other gymnastic gyrations, while Arcadia, in contrast, is represented by graceful posturing and sylph-like movements, the dancers combining later in an artistic exposition of the terpsichorean art.” (Tap here to view the musical items performed in Australia.)

Of historical interest is the fact that James Smith first crash-landed his aeroplane in Arcadia on the stage of Melbourne’s Theatre Royal only eight days after visiting magician and escapologist, Harry Houdini was credited with making the first aeroplane flight in Australia at Digger’s Rest outside Melbourne on 18 March 1910 in his Voisin biplane. (Indeed, when The Arcadians premiered in London at the Shaftesbury Theatre on 28 April 1909, it wasn’t until four days later on 2 May that John Moore-Brabazon became the first Englishman to make an officially recognised aeroplane flight in England at Shellbeach on the Isle of Sheppey, also in a Voisin biplane).

Houdini makes history! (albeit in a likely photo montage). State Library Victoria, Melbourne

The local Press reviews lauded the musical comedy and its players and it enjoyed packed houses during a financially successful Melbourne season of just under three months, closing on 10 June and then playing for three nights at Ballarat’s Her Majesty’s Theatre on 13, 14 and 15 June, followed by a short season at Adelaide’s Theatre Royal between 25 June to 15 July, before venturing north to open at Sydney’s Criterion Theatre on 23 July for a two month run, which concluded on 23 September 1910. Tragically, towards the end of the Sydney season, Arthur Edwards drowned in a boating accident when a dinghy he was rowing capsized on Sydney Harbour near Manly on 17 September and his role of ‘Percy French’ was subsequently taken over by Frank Morris, but without the eccentric dancing, which was Edward’s speciality. (A trained dancer, Edwards was also to have choreographed Clarke and Meynell’s upcoming productions.)

Harry Julius caricature for "The Bulletin"

National Library of Australia, Canberra

Eccentric dancer Arthur Edwards

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

Clarke and Meynell’s New English Comic Opera Company then returned to the Melbourne Theatre Royal to appear in a one week revival of its earlier success Sergeant Brue from 24 September, followed by the Australian premiere of the Edward German comic opera Tom Jones (founded on the novel by Henry Fielding), from 1 October 1910 for a six week season (until 11 November), starring Harold Thorley in the title role and Irish prima donna Winifred O’Connor making her Australian debut as 'Sophia'; with William Cromwell as 'Benjamin Partridge', Tom Walls as 'Gregory', Gertrude Gilliam as 'Honor' and Percy Clifton as 'Squire Western'.

Auditorium of the Theatre Royal (remodelled in 1904)

Return seasons of The Arcadians followed at the Theatre Royal from 12 November 1910 with Winifred O’Connor as ‘Sombra’ and Flossie Dickínson (previously seen as the Arcadian maiden 'Dryope') as ‘Chrysea’, plus Continental dancer Mdlle. Christie Mulniah performing an interpolated dance number in the third Act as an added attraction; and at Sydney’s Criterion from 24 December as a Christmas–New Year attraction concluding on 20 January 1911. The production then toured to Toowoomba, Queensland for a three-night season at the Town Hall from 23 May 1911 (with Fred Winn taking over as ‘Smith/Simplicitas’), and subsequently made its debut at His Majesty’s Theatre, Brisbane on 27 May, playing to 9 June. The company then journeyed across the Tasman and made their New Zealand debut in The Arcadians at His Majesty’s Theatre, Auckland on 26 June 1911, presented in repertory with other Clarke and Meynell musical productions, ahead of a tour of other cities that included Wellington, Dunedin and Christchurch.

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 The Reviews 

Maie Sydney as 'Sombra'

National Library of Australia, Canberra

Toms Walls as 'Peter Doody'

National Library of Australia, Canberra

"THE ARCADIANS”

A THEATRE ROYAL SUCCESS.

Arcadia is a country where all the world’s a stage picture of soft or dazzling beauty, where Truth reigns so triumphant that nymphs and actresses are prettier than their photographs, where all fair damsels have sisterly affection for strangers, and the word "Mrs" is unknown, where no rent is paid (it is like a Labour manifesto), where all the songs are sweet, and the choruses have the full throated melody of a valley full of nightingales. This delicious land was peopled, at the Theatre Royal on Saturday night, by Clarke and Meynell's new English opera company, and a huge Easter audience fell in love with Arcady on the spot. There can be no mistake about the brilliant success of Saturday night. Old favourites in the cast were received with tremendous enthusiasm, new favourites established themselves with a bang.

Most of the whimsical story of the play has already been told to the Melbourne public and the audience read it on their programmes before the curtain rose. It appears that while London was being built, and aeroplanes and Dreadnoughts, and taxes were being invented, Father Time was so hustled that "the stitch in time became chronic," and he forgot, the existence of the Arcadians, who dwelt in their Grecian valleys, for ever young and innocent and fair. Into the bower of greenery and blossom Father Time suddenly stalks—a genial and merry old fellow, as portrayed by Mr. Percy Clifton, but it is a mean advantage that he takes of the simple Arcadians when he works off on them the crusted jokes he has been hoarding for three thousand years. To make amends, he introduces to them the latest thing in modernity—namely, Mr William Cromwell, otherwise James Smith, king of restaurant keepers and prince of married liars in London. Of course Mr. Smith tells a lie; it is his nature to, and his lie creates as much sensation as a policeman in a two up school—the Arcadia of Melbourne's Sunday afternoons. He is promptly dropped into the Well of Truth, loses his lies, his whiskers, and his trousers in one dip, is rechristened Simplicitas, and is sent to England to convert the heathen to the truthful and simple life.

A trio of Arcadians—the new made Simplicitas (Mr Cromwell), Sombra (Miss Maie Sydney), and Chrysea (Miss Essie Perrin)—are dropped out of a flash of lightning into the Askwood racecourse. The hero and villain of the turf—the Good Owner (Mr. Harold Thorley), and the Bad Owner (Mr. Conway Wingfield) —are both here; both want the same girl (Miss Gertrude Gilliam); and both (strangely enough) are sending their horses to win. The audience learns a fact which makes punting a riskier game than ever, namely, that it is the horses which arrange how a race is to be run, not the jockeys; and Sombra here reveals a quality which would make her invaluable as a stipendiary steward; she understands horse talk, and can foretell confidently that that man-eater The Deuce, will win the Cup for Jack Meadows (Mr Harold Thorley), who thereby wins one string of his double, the black-eyed Eileen Kavanagh (Miss Gilliam), being the second victory promised to him. But while Smith the caterer, unrecognised by his old acquaintances, is enjoying himself as Simplicitas, Mrs Smith (played by Miss Nellie Kavanagh), has her eye to business and promptly hires all the Arcadians to push business in a new Arcadian Restaurant. London (in act III.) grows enthusiastic for the Simple Life and a diet of nuts and apples. Simplicitas, young and blooming, making love to all the aristocracy of England; Mrs Smith makes love to Simplicitas, perceiving in him the tender qualities of her own old Jim in courting days. Herein there is a chance for an immense amount of fooling. Of course Smith trips into a lie sooner or later—his lapse is an object-lesson in the pitfalls awaiting husbands who misguidedly try to explain things to their wives. So Smith tumbles into the Well of Truth once more; he reappears bald-headed and side-whiskered as of old; all is revealed and the story ends with a "curtain" weaker than the rest of the play.

The authors of the book (Mark Ambient and A. M. Thompson) have paid less attention to the delicate charm of Arcadia than to the fantastic incongruity of Simplicitas Smith. One might have welcomed more play of poetic fancy round the Arcadians, but Simplicitas has the big part. In the hands of Mr William Cromwell he was immensely funny even though Mr Cromwell depends more upon his gags and “situations” than upon native unction of humour. The richest study of character was supplied by Mr Tom Walls as the unsuccessful jockey Peter Doody. Peter Doody is grafted on to the play, but without him it would lose an important limb. He is perpetually hungry, for he trains on caraway seeds and sodawater, nevertheless he puts on weight so alarmingly that he has to bite his nails to satisfy the weigher-in. His life is blighted by his being unplaced either in love or racing; nevertheless, there was never a man more lugubriously determined to consider himself a lively dog and a merry Don Juan. When he sang in sad accents his recklessly jovial mottoes, Mr Walls made the biggest success of the play, and the audience encored and encored. They would have had him repeat his dismal exposition of gay Philosophy all the evening. He dresses as Ganymede and wears the face of Pluto; he moans Bacchic sentiments in an undertaker's voice.

Miss Maie Sydney, representing the Arcadian maiden Sombra, is the chief figure in the first act, and as one in a quartet ("The Joy of Life") first made her singing voice heard. The number was encored but this applause was nothing to that which awaited Miss Sydney's first solo, "The Pipes of Pan" where an ingenious accompaniment made the wood-god’s pipes answer to the fresh young voice, while the singer, with delightful skill, echoed back her own melody. One of Miss Sydney's songs was "cut" from Act III, but in Act II, she had another solo "Arcady is Ever Young," which she sang with as haunting a sweetness as the first. It was Arcadian music, and both in song and speech Miss Sydney kept the atmosphere of her fairy dwelling place around her. whether the scene was Arcady itself, the Askwood racecourse, or the restaurant of plain feeding and high flirting in London.

No parvenu could make a happier stage picture than Miss Nellie Kavanagh as the caterer's wife, Mrs Smith. Miss Kavanagh drops her h’s with a joyous gusto which you could seldom hear rivalled; from tip to toe she is the most freshly vulgar creature imaginable, and whenever she is on the stage you get the greasy breath of the kitchen in a way which stamps her acting with a real hall-mark. Miss Gertrude Gilliam, as the Irish girl Eileen, is impulsive and charming, and while she sang of “The Girl with the Brogue” the Irish question was settled for the time being in Ireland’s favour. The part of Jack Meadows, happy-go-lucky racing man, was suited to the somewhat galvanic activity of Mr Harold Thorley, and he and Miss Gillam scored with their duet “Charming Weather” in the racing scene. Mr Arthur Edwards sustained so excellently the character of the languid Percy Marsh that something more was expected of him, and it came in his dance with Chrysea (Miss Essie Perrin) in the third act. Mr Edwards's legs performed marvels, and after his astonishing gyrations he and Miss Perrin danced together, making a series of poses delicious in their grace. Among minor characters it is necessary to mention Dreamland, the horse who won cups for Sir Rupert Clarke and now plays as The Deuce (but does not play the deuce) at the Royal, He came on the stage like a gentleman—a nervous gentleman,

The opera contains a set of wonderful stage pictures. Mr Phil. Goatcher’s scenery in the first act is a fairyland of leaf and blossom; in the second, a cool grove of racecourse elms; in the third, a flowery hall with exquisite windows; and in Acts I and II the stage relief, with its varying heights, is such that when the gaily-dressed figures are grouped upon it the picture is unforgettable. The scene where Smith goes into the well, the rainstorm in Act II, and the packed racing scene are notable instances of beautiful results from stage mechanics, painting, dressing and grouping. The zest and enthusiasm of the racing scene could not be surpassed. It was like being at the Cup to hear the excited shouting and shrieking. The new piece has found the rank and file of the company in great working order, and the music of Lionel Monckton and Howard Talbot receives fine treatment from their voices. The opening and closing choruses in "Arcadia" in Act I are song-bursts to be remembered.

The Argus (Melbourne), Monday, 28 March 1910, p.7 – http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10844884

Gertrude Gilliam as 'Eileen Cavanagh' - "Bring me a Rose"

National Library of Australia, Canberra

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AMUSEMENTS.

THEATRE ROYAL—THE ARCADIANS.

All is fish to the librettist's net. Small wonder, then, that when the authors of The Arcadians, given for the first time at the Theatre Royal on Saturday, swept up out of the deep a goodly slice of that frail thing Platonic love, a flying machine, a horse race and a vegetarian restaurant, they did not quail. After all, a page from Theocritus and a modern combustion engine can be made to hang together—if you only know how— and, while in this instance Messrs. Ambient and Thompson do not completely succeed, they manage to convey a tolerably clear notion of their aim. This we take to be that the ethics of Arcady and everyday life won't mix. It is another version of Kipling's—

East is east, and west is west,
And never the twain shall meet.

They don’t. Chiefly for the reason that Arcadians never tell a lie and the English can’t tell the truth. At least they say so themselves, two rather scantily attired ladies from Arcady, and James smith, of Smith and Co., caterers, London.

Smith, the hero of this veracious piece of history, meets the Arcadians through a mishap to his aeroplane, which causes him to drop into the midst of an entrancing scene of Platonic loving shepherds and shepherdesses. Unable to understand the philosophy of the Londoner, who insists that the lie “is much more useful,” they dip him in the well of Truth. He thereupon becomes an Arcadian, forswears meat and all the other enemies of the simple life, lives on cold water and apples, and— tells the truth. Fired with their success in converting the restaurant keeper, Sombra and Chrysea, two female Arcadians persuade Smith to join them in a crusade to convert London, and, by the aid of Father Time, find themselves transported to Askwood racecourse. Here their first act is to make a rank outsider, The Deuce win against heavy odds, Smith being the rider, and thus defeat the machinations of a rascally baronet, Sir George Paddock, against a young blood, Jack Meadows. A friendly enough deed, though apparently in no way conducing to the spiritual well being of the Londoners. Later on they do other well meant things, and finally ally themselves with an Arcadian restaurant, where nothing is sold save greens and "soft stuff;" but finding that, despite their shining example, untruth is mighty and will prevail, they ruefully confess their inability to make one single convert—even Smith "turns dog," or rather liar, in the end—and so they go back to Arcady.

Around this fantastic melange the composers, Lionel Monckton and Howard Talbot, have woven some charming music. With two minds at work there is necessarily a lack of continuous atmosphere; the numbers are all isolated, with scant connecting thread to bind them into solid unity. But viewed individually many are equal, if not superior, to anything in comic opera heard for a long time. The Pipes of Pan is a particularly good number of a dainty madrigal-like cast, worth singing anywhere. Almost equally good is The Girl With a Brogue, with its clever imitation of the cadence of the Irish Folk song, and the sentimental ballad Arcady is ever young. In another way the Chorus of Fear, Look What Hovers There Above Us, sounds a deeper note. Throughout there are numerous dances, melodious, lively and invariably effective. As far as the orchestration goes, the composers attempt nothing out of the way. All is, however, done nicely and deftly, and, considering the small scope of the comic opera orchestral
palette, the results are in every way artistic.

Miss Maie Sydney, the prima donna of the new company, as Sombra may be credited with a genuine success. She has a sweet mezzo soprano, very effective in the middle and upper registers, and evidently well cultivated. Some of the coloratura passages in the song Light is My Heart and the aforementioned Pipes of Pan were in fact so good as to suggest that bigger things are by no means impossible to her. If there is anything to cavil at, it lies in her persistent use of the "scoop" or portamento, to use the "more politer" term. Incessant gliding up and down the gamut becomes, even with the best of singers, something of a nuisance, and in her own interests Miss Maie Sydney may be advised to give it a wide berth. For the rest her performance was convincing and attractive, and obviously to the taste of the audience. Another new arrival, Miss Gertrude Gillian, gave her two songs The Girl With the Brogue and the ditty, Bring Me a Rose well, bringing out the Hibernian characteristics with satisfactory results. Miss Nellie Kavanagh in the role of Mrs. Smith, sings nothing, but talks and acts—especially to her husband—to such purpose as to make herself not the least interesting figure of the piece.

In the role of Smith Mr. William Cromwell is surely as diverting a Londoner as ever walked the Strand. Asked by the Arcadians why he clothes his legs, he answers, because trousers cover a multitude of shins. Jealousy, he says, is a kind of friendship. between one woman and another, and true to the character of an irreverent Cockney, he sees in the venerable figure of Father Time and his scythe Shylock with a safety razor. And so on throughout the piece. Save in his first scene with Mrs. Smith, where his movements were perhaps needlessly rough, it was all in excellent taste, and as far as the singing went, pleasing, and, of course, highly amusing. Well nigh equal to this was Mr. Tom Walls’ presentment of a jockey who has to strive to keep down his weight. His usual diet is a glass of soda water and a carroway seed, and as this latter invariably gets lost in a hollow tooth he must fain go hungry. Roars of laughter greeted the screamingly funny rendition of his one song, My Motter, and even after four encores the audience still remained unsatisfied. Mr. Harold Thorley sings sundry ballads. Miss Elsie Perrin and Mr. Arthur Edwards give a highly effective dance, London and Arcadia—a sort of terpsichorean picture of the two extremes— and various other items are contributed by Miss Constance Lait, and Messrs. Charlie Stone, Leith Harvey. Phil. Carlton, Percy Clifton and Conway Wingfield.

The mounting, like the dressing, is splendid. The first act shows an exquisite sylvan scene, a foreground of richly colored verdure, with a stream in fine perspective meandering in the distance. In the second act the Askwood racecourse is cleverly depicted; almost equal to the first is the Arcadian restaurant, a veritable bower of luxurious wisteria, vines, et hoc genus omne, through which the towers of Westminster and the Thames are seen.

The piece was received with warm enthusiasm by an audience so large that not another person could have been squeezed into the theatre without bringing the management into conflict with the authorities. All the solo items were encored, and the race, in which the whole company portrayed the varying phases as one horse after another came to the fore, was a really brilliant example of stage effect, further intensified when the winner, a one time Australian Cup favorite, Dreamland rushed in with the gasping Smith in the saddle. A fresh voiced chorus, and a capable orchestra under the direction of Mr. Victor Champion, materially help in the success of the production.

The Age (Melbourne), Monday, 28 March 1910, p.7 – http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article196075671

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Theatre Royal, Bourke St., Melbourne (c.1913)

State library Victoria, Melbourne

Generic programme cover for "The Arcadians"

State library Victoria, Melbourne

THEATRE ROYAL.
—♦—
THE ARCADIANS.
—♦—

The Arcadians! The very words afford sufficient basis upon which the imagination may build a pastoral symphony symbolic of bubbling brooks; of Pan playing on his pipes, a dear country peopled by simple living folk made gracious to us by the inspired pens of poets.

And one was not disappointed when the curtain rose upon the first act of The Arcadians at the Theatre Royal on Saturday, for it was just such a land to which the great audience—a happy, holiday audience—found itself transported. The charming Arcadians lie at ease beneath the golden foliage and red and white blossoms of their fair land which according to the fancy of the play's authors has remained isolated from the rest of the world even up to the present day, so that they have only heard rumors of London and the strange "monsters" which inhabit it, and who tell "that awful thing, the lie," a thing unknown in Arcadia.

It is into this veritable Eden that James Smith, of "Smith and Co., Caterers, London," a prosperous, but vulgar individual, with impossible side whiskers, is somewhat violently precipitated owing to his aeroplane having played him false at a critical moment. It is at this point that Arcadian simplicity and the complexity of modern life are brought into striking and amusing contrast, the scene culminating in Smith telling a lie, which is at once detected. Straightway he is consigned by the horrified Arcadians to the Well of Truth from which he emerges an Arcadian himself, bereft of his whiskers and attired in the bright vestments of Arcadia. To him is given the name Simplicitas, and the curtain of the first act falls upon his departure for London, accompanied by two fair Arcadian maidens, Sombra and Chrysea, to convert the "monsters'' of that city to the paths of truthfulness and simplicity.

The trio commence their mission at Askwood on Cup Day, descending in the midst of a gaily-dressed racecourse crowd, where they are mistaken for Salvationists or the latest thing in advertisements. Here is introduced the only love theme in the piece, and it provides a peg on which to hang several pretty scenes and songs. Jack Meadows, on the verge of ruin and hopelessly in love with Eileen Cavanagh, has a horse in the Cup, a savage brute named The Deuce. If The Deuce wins, then all will be well; if he does not, then exit Jack Meadows. Doody, a melancholy Jockey, who is in a continual state of lamentation about his blighted love and his privations in order to keep down his weight, has been engaged to ride him, but is "savaged" by his vicious mount and rendered hors de combat. Who will ride him? Sombra settles the matter after a talk with The Deuce, for all Arcadians can talk to animals.

Simplicitas is to ride him. He does, and wins. The race scene is one of the most exciting that has ever contributed to the success of a musical comedy. It is shown as if the course ran round the dress circle, and the whole company, shouting, cheering and yelling, follows it pivoted from the back of the stage. The effect was wonderful and raised the packed house to the highest pitch of excitement. Sombra and Chrysea speedily become the rage of London, and the commercial instincts of Simplicitas, who is Smith still, see that they can be exploited to make his large hotel a success, and he, or rather his wife, who does not recognise him as her husband, turns it into an Arcadian Restaurant, which forms the setting of the last act. Here the love story is worked out to a happy conclusion, many songs are sung, and finally Simplictias, having told a lie, becomes Smith with the whiskers once more, and is re-united to his gay and buxom wife.

Much has been claimed for the new musical play, much of which will be readily allowed, while no one will wonder at its great success. Superbly staged, admirably presented by a talented company, it goes with a swing from start to finish. Bright and witty dialogue, dainty lyrics, and amusing incidents are crowded into it so thickly that even the most captious critic should be satisfied. It does not require any consideration to affirm that the public will be, especially in view of the royal reception accorded it on Saturday night.

Where so many did so well it is almost invidious to make comparisons. But pride of place must be given to Miss Maie Sydney, the young Australian actress who has just returned from London. She made a most successful debut as Sombra, and promises to become a great favorite. She possesses a charming voice of clear and flute-like quality, which was heard to great advantage in many delightful songs, especially in The Pipes of Pan are Calling, Arcady Is Ever Young, and Light Is My Heart. And she acted with just that plaintive earnestness which makes the part so attractive. Miss Essie Perrin, as Chrysea, also scored a distinct success, especially in a dance (marked by some startling originality) with Mr Arthur Edwards.

Miss Gertrude Gilliam as Eileen Cavanaugh, "the girl with the brogue," sang and danced herself into the hearts of the audience in her love scenes with Jack Meadows, a part admirably sustained by Mr Harold Thorley. Miss Nellie Kavanagh, as Mrs Smith, was in the front row of the laughter makers, as was, of course, Mr. William Cromwell, who made a host of new friends as Smith, the caterer. His songs and dances, combined with the amusing scenes in which he figured, especially those with his wife, during the period she does not recognise him, were highly diverting. Mr Tom Walls as Peter Doody, the gloomy Jockey, who has been riding the 16 years, and never won a race, and never expects to do so, stands out prominently and his song, I've Gotter Motter, which proves to be "ever merry and bright" caused the house to rock with laughter. It is probably "the" song that will "catch on" with the public.

The other members of the company gave excellent support to the principals, especially in the choruses, some of which are of a very high standard, as may be said of the music generally. Any notice of the piece would be incomplete without a tribute to the beautiful scenery painted by Mr Phil Goatcher. For each of the three acts he has provided a setting which can only be described as a triumph of scenic art. It should also be mentioned that encores were frequently demanded on Saturday evening and that the leading ladies were smothered in flowers at the conclusion of the piece, which promises to be a great success.

The Herald (Melbourne), Monday, 28 March 1910, p.4 – http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article242075729

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THE ARCADIANS.

Preliminary announcements had whetted interest in this production, and the Theatre Royal was filled with an expectant audience. Nor were their anticipations disappointed. The Arcadians contains all the elements of success, in music with the charm of melody and vivacity, in an infusion of humor in more generous measure than is often obtainable, in scenic accessories which are a source of continuous pleasure to the eye, and in a capable company wherein every member may be credited with contributing to the general result. The simple effect is so good that as soon as the management can give some attention to the necessity for catching last trains the Arcadians will take its place among the most cherished delights of the Australian playgoer.

The authors of this amusing conception will not lay claim to originality, except in their method of treatment. The central idea has its origin in Gilbert's Palace of Truth, and ingenious search might trace even further back the germ of the suggestion. There is ample scope for delicate humor and for broad fun also, in the proposition for an enforced banishment of the lie. Only in the very simple life is it possible to obey the standard of Arcady, and to be innocent even of the intention to deceive. Very inviting indeed is the glimpse given of Arcadia before the memory of Time had been awakened to its existence, Like the island of the Lotus eaters, it is land where nature shows its most enticing charms, where love is the only law, and the diet of its people is as innocent of harm as their manners. The joyful strains of the opening chorus Arcadians Are We raise a responsive desire in the hearts of the hearers. When Father Time makes his appearance, jocund and light footed in spite of the unceasing passage of the years, we feel his presence to be an intrusion. He explains in merry lilt how he quite forgot Arcadia, and he arouses the curiosity, inherent in the feminine nature when he describes the "monsters" who inhabit less favored portions of the globe.

This is in preparation for the appearance of Mr. James Smith, the London caterer, who, less skilful in aviation than Houdini, falls from his airship and rolls gently down the green sward. His disposition to lying is so pronounced that he quickly offends against the Arcadian requirement of truth, and the dip into the well which transforms him into the untrousered Simplicitas does not wholly change his nature. With an inquisitive aching for the unknown, Sombra and Chrysea, two of the most attracive among Arcadian maidens, resolve to accompany Simplicitas on the mission of conversion with which he has been entrusted. We leave Arcadia with regret.

In the following acts the atmosphere is frankly mundane, with nothing poetic in the surroundings save the gentle effort of Sombra to maintain her beliefs. The racecourse scene is full of liveliness and bustle. There is the gaily dressed crowd, the ladies' costumes representing sartorial taste in its highest expression. Fun and flirtation are rampant, and the convenient concealment of the truth is being carried out in a manner which represents the farthest departure from Arcadian ideals. Amid this scene the Arcadian missionaries make their sudden appearance. The company of pleasure seekers are not quite certain whether they have escaped from a circus or a Salvation Army tent, but according to their sex they find some pleasure in the unexpected visitation. Simplicitas becomes immensely popular among the ladies, while the Arcadian maidens receive so much attention from the men that even the blithe heart of the Irish girl, "the girl with a brogue," is moved to jealousy when she finds her lover teaching the young idea how to kiss. This act is rendered memorable by two incidents, the appearance of a new comedian and the crowning effort of realism in bringing Dreamland, an Australian Cup winner, on the stage to represent the victorious racehorse. The final act, enlivened by some admirable dancing, depicts the Arcadian restaurant where the Arcadians are being exploited for money-making purposes by the astute wife of the missing Mr. Smith. This is on more conventional lines, and the curtailment which is necessary, might well be exercised on this part.

The company fully sustained the complimentary forecast of their powers. Mr. Cromwell, Mr. Thorley and Miss Essie Perrin needed no introduction. Miss Maie Sydney, accounted the prima donna, soon sang her way into the appreciation of the audience. She is like a gleam of sunshine, dainty in appearance, and with a sweet mezzo-soprano well-cultured and effectively managed. Her songs, the Joy of Life, The Pipes of Pan are Calling and Arcady is Ever Young, were delightfully rendered. In the Arcady scene Miss Maie Sydney is the principal figure, but when she steps down into the ordinary world she seems to melt away until she almost reaches the point of final vanishment. The position of prominence is then taken up by Miss Gertrude Gilliam, who, full of Irish fun and animation, is very attractive. Her songs, A Girl with a Brogue, Charming Weather and Bring me a Rose, were much appreciated. Mr. Thorley was not given much opportunity for distinction except in concerted numbers, but he bore himself bravely, and did good service in duet and quartet.

The company is especially strong in comedians. Mr. Cromwell is a host in himself, and he is especially diverting as Simplicitas. The tired feeling with which he was originally associated has no opportunity of expression in the mercurial Cockney who is ever ready to derive amusement from his surroundings. Mr. Cromwell does not sing in the musical sense of the word, yet he understands how to express the fun in a comic or patter song. There is an ingenious originality about Mr. Tom Walls’ humor. He is lugubriously funny as a jockey who has to be kept constantly on the starvation diet of a glass of water and a carraway seed, yet whose stomach yearns passionately for the flesh pots of Egypt. His song My Motter, capable apparently of indefinite extension, so tickled the taste of the audience that it was ravenous for more, until the action of the piece suffered. Miss Nellie Kavanagh, as Mrs. Smith, also showed an excellent quality of humor, frankly vulgar as became the character, spontaneous and bright. Miss Essie Perrin was delightful in her dancing, and Mr. Arthur Edwards displayed a surprising ability in eccentric saltatory performances. Their dances together became one of the principal features of the performance. Mr. Charlie Stone did some good work, and Mr. Percy Clifton may also be complimented on his lively version of the flight of time. The orchestra and chorus both render invaluable service. The Arcadians may be trusted to secure public approval in unrestrained measure.

The Leader (Melbourne), Saturday, 2 April 1910, pp.32 – 33

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ENTERTAINMENTS.

The authors of The Arcadians, Messrs Mark Ambient and A.M. Thompson, appear to have provided their imaginations with effective aeroplanes. As in the case of the Commonwealth Government, when it offered certain encouragements to aerial navigators, no proper stipulations were made as to "hovering." There is, in consequence, no stopping place and no limitation of any sort. On the wings of the aeroplane, the audience is taken from one improbability to another. From a land which old Father Time had overlooked, and which in consequence, was free from the scythe-bearer's devastating changes to an up-to-date English racecourse is but the drop of a curtain. Another twist of the aeroplane and a piece of the land overlooked by Time is brought into London. It is all very original, and is all accompanied by clever humorous dialogue, remarkably picturesque scenery and catchy songs and music. The land which has escaped the notice of Time is called Arcadia. It is inhabited by blissful, happy people, whose life, uninterrupted communication with nature has enabled them to talk to the flowers and the trees, the birds and the frolicking lambs. They would as soon eat one another as eat a little lamb or a bird. Whether the fruit and the herbs with which they also appear able to communicate enjoy being eaten is not stated, and in Arcadia no one appears to bother his or her head with perplexing problems.

There are beautiful rippling streams and Autumn tints, and—most important to the story—there is a "well of truth." The people know not how to tell a lie, they never heard of money or business, and, as for ordinary everyday frivolities of life, they are as strange to Arcadia as feathered frogs. When Mr. Smith, of the firm of Smith and Co., caterers, of London, drops to Arcadia on an aeroplane, there are, necessarily, complications. Smith is a hard-faced plebeian, and, to suit his convenience, he tells a lie. The Arcadians promptly dip him in the well of truth, and he comes up the picture of youth and innocence. He is given to understand that if he again lies all his former ugliness will return. The Arcadians, delighted with the reform worked in Smith, decide to send missionaries to London to convert "the monsters" of that benighted fog-laden city. The "mission," with Smith at its head, and two sweet little creatures, named Sombra and Chrysea, in its ranks, lands on Askwood racecourse at a time when an exciting meeting is in full swing. The rest of the story deals with the mission, which proves entirely unsuccessful, except that a charming Irish girl, named Eileen Cavanagh, is brought to her lawful lover, Jack Meadows, through its instrumentality. Incidentally, Sir George Paddock, a bold, bad baron, who wants to marry Eileen, is, figuratively speaking, put to flight. Mrs Smith, the caterer's wife, is a robust, rollicking person, who contributes much of the fun, while Peter Doody, a jockey, keeps the audience as full of mirth as he himself is full of melancholy foreboding.

The part of Peter is taken by Mr Tom Walls, whose acting, like everything else in The Arcadians, is stamped with originality throughout. He appears "telescoped" into his coat in typical jockey style, and he hardly speaks one word without provoking laughter. He explains that it is the "wearing down" to get off weight that makes him sad. Since the previous morning he has had nothing but a bottle of soda-water and a carrraway seed, and "the carraway seed got stuck in a hollow tooth." His song, "My Motter," is one of the most comical features of the production. Miss Maie Sydney, another new artist to Melbourne audiences, is a native of the sister capital, whose name she bears. She is an accomplished young actress, with an attractive singing voice, and as she is still only on the threshold of her career, Miss Sydney should develop exceptional quality. Meanwhile, as Sombra, she makes a graceful little Arcadian, her songs, "The Pipes of Pan are calling," and "Arcady Is Ever Young," being amongst her best numbers. Mr William Cromwell, as Smith, drops from his airship into Arcadia with a comical roll, and with "merry quip and crank" he works his way through the whole piece. The part suits Mr Cromwell, and Mr Cromwell appears to suit the audience. Miss Essie Perrin, as Chrysea, an Arcadian, makes a worthy twin sister to Miss Sydney, but her opportunities to display her dancing are limited. The Father Time of Mr Percy Clifton is conspicuous chiefly for the correctness of his "get up" and the breeziness with which the song, "I quite Forgot Arcadia" is rendered. Mr Harold Thorley, as Jack Meadows, has a part which suits him well. He is heard to advantage in solos and duets. Mr Arthur Edwards, as a languid dude, Miss Nellie Kavanagh, as Mrs Smith, and Miss Gertrude Gilliam, as the Irish Girl, all have attractive parts, of which the most is made. Miss Gilliam's song, "The Girl With the Brogue," is well received.

The Weekly Times (Melbourne), Saturday, 2 April 1910, p.2

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SUNDRY SHOWS

"The Arcadians," produced at Melbourne Royal last Saturday, is a musical comedy with a soul—not too much soul, but enough. The substantial body of it is partly conventional, and considerably grotesque. James Smith, the elderly cockney caterer who passed out of worldly ken on his aeroplane and re-appeared as a semi-naked young man under an alias, is more grotesque though less of a novelty than Doody, the pessimistic jockey. Doody retires from the turf to take a waiter's billet at the new Arcadian Restaurant, opened by Mrs. Smith (in Piccadilly) to meet the fashionable craze for Simple Life refreshments. Between the humorous effects of Cromwell as Smith Simplicitas and Tom Walls as the lugubrious Doody there is something to choose. Whereas the acclimatised comedian is cheerfully funny, the newcomer's part is absurdly droll. His heart is blighted, and his one passion is to keep his weight down. He lives on rueful reminiscences and soda water, and in sad sepulchral tones he refers to himself as a bit of a Don Juan. Melbourne will talk of Peter Doody as time rolls on, for he represents a caricature rather than a notion. Associated in broad comedy with Smith and the spectral horseman is Nellie Kavanagh, another newcomer, as Mrs. Smith. She is a large good-humored lady in a good-humored part, and a capital actress at that.

For the rest, the characters are picturesquely Arcadian or orthodoxly bright. Miss Maie Sydney, the Sombra of the story, has a pretty little style and a sweet, high soprano voice, which is said to be not at its best just now. She might put more force into her part, but she is at least winsome in all respects. Miss Gertrude Gilliam, who plays the principal lady-worldling and sings duets with Harold Thorley, strikes one on first acquaintance as being merely satisfactory. Her singing and her attempts at Irish brogue have no special charm about them, but she is light and graceful on her feet, a remark that doesn't apply to Thorley. Essie Perrin looks and dances sweetly as Sombra's sister missionary.

A clever acrobatic dance is supplied by Arthur Edwards. A sporting baronet, in irreproachable clothes, is well presented by Conway Wingfield, and there are many others who behave naturally under impossible conditions, and sing with mild success when required. The music of “The Arcadians" ranges from simply pretty to positively charming, the dialogue, as a rule, is as amusing as the plot, and the tout ensemble adds a feather—even two or three feathers—to the managerial hat of Clarke and Meynell. In fact, this is a mighty fine show, and a credit to the land of its adoption. Victor Champion, as director of an augmented orchestra, waves his baton at a chorus which is especially strong in male voices. Phil Goatcher has painted some beautiful backgrounds for the elegant harmonies of millinery, and Wenman's stage-management attains a triumphant height in the exciting suggestion of a horserace, invisible to the audience, but loudly commented on by the performers. What the audience see of the great turf event is Cromwell clinging to the neck of a handsome, fat racehorse, once renowned as Dreamland.

The Bulletin (Sydney), 31 March 1910, p.9

Hal Gye caricature for "The Bulletin"

(ditto)

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THEATRE ROYAL.

"THE ARCADIANS."

Melbourne theatregoers continue to appreciate the happy accident by which Father Time forgot the Arcadians, and the equally happy accident which earned two of them to London and the whole population of Arcady to the Australian stage.

From the moment when Mr James Smith, caterer, falls into the country of the astonished Arcadians to the departure from London of the shepherdesses, at last despairing of its reformation, the production sparkles brightly and constantly. It is well, however, for the rest of the play, that Mr Tom Walls's irresistible song "I've Gotter Motter,” does not come until near the close of the last act. There is exquisite scenery for the eye, Miss Maie Sydney charms the ear with her sweet singing, humour is not lacking in the foolery of Mr. William Cromwell and Miss Nellie Kavanagh and the dancing of Miss Essie Perrin and Mr Arthur Edwards provides all that can be asked in dainty grace and quaint grotesquely. Yet you leave the theatre with all these things in your mind as a setting only. All pale before the wildly hilarious success of “I've Gotter Motter.” The audience rocks with uncontrollable laughter as the mournful voice rises in absurd intonation and ludicrous accent to the declaration that "every cloud is silver-lined." There is no gainsaying Peter Doody’s eminence in popularity.

It says much for other comedians in the opera that Mr Walls's conjunction of opportunity and ability does not rob them by comparison of appreciation. Mr William Cromwell, in the double part of Smith and Simplicitas, never fails of his laugh, and Mr Arthur Edwards, the comic dude, is as extraordinary in repose as in his eccentric dancing. When Miss Essie Perrin danced with him there is one movement startlingly unusual and captivating. Miss Perrin, with whom dancing looks effortless, moves across the stage towards her partner. There is a sudden forward dive as a bird dips in its flight, made with the same sureness and grace, and Miss Perrin is lying across her partner's arms.

There is a catchy swing in Mr Percy Clifton's song “I Quite forgot Arcadia," and Miss Gertrude Gilliam makes good use of her opportunities in songs and dance, which fall to the character of Eileen Cavanagh.

Many of the people who are curious to see the “Chanticler" hats introduced in the London scenes feel a little disappointment that, with one exception, they lack the expected grotesqueness, and form most becoming headdresses. The exception is a huge white rooster, looking not like a hat, but like an unhappy fowl which is in the wrong place, and is painfully conscious of it.

The Argus (Melbourne), Monday, 18 April 1910, p.9

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Hal Gye caricature for "The Bulletin"

 SUNDRY SHOWS 

Sydney has not seen a more fascinating production in years than "The Arcadians," which was staged at the Criterion last week. Someone wrote in a London review, the other day, that when the English-speaking Aristophanes materialises, if he ever does, he will exercise his genius on a musical play "charming to the senses, stimulating to the imagination, and satisfying to the intelligence—a work that will be an enchanting fairy tale to the young and to the old a gracefully genial, satirical phantasmagoria."

The wit of "The Arcadians" isn't exactly Aristophanic; on the other hand, there is lots of it, and it is exploited by masters. In other respects the piece pretty nearly complies with the specifications mentioned above. A scene-painter, a fine orchestra, and a score or so of musical-comedians contrive to suggest, at times, something of the languorous charm and poetry of life in Arcady, and that without any of the magic lines of, say, "Twelfth Night," to help the illusion along. For the rest, the merits of the show may be stated by means of negatives. Idiotic sentimentality, and the banal musical numbers and hideous calcium effects which commonly march therewith, are pleasingly absent. No one gets drunk. There isn't a single questionable, suggestive or obscene jest in the entire show. Which unusualnesses count for a good deal of artistic righteousness.

This musical-comedy is unique in another respect; a coherent plot may be distinctly identified with the naked eye. James Smith, a Cockney caterer, falls into Arcady out of an aeroplane. As the role of James is sustained by William Cromwell, playgoers will understand the type of caterer it is who lands among the gentle pastoral folk. Smith is "dipped" for lying shortly after his arrival, and emerges from the "Well of Truth" physically unable to prevaricate. With this disability upon him, and accompanied by the maidens, Sombra and Chrysea, he returns to London, where his formidable wife and their joint restaurant reside. Smith and the Arcadians encounter Mrs. Smith and her friends on Askwood racecourse. Mrs. Smith fails to recognise her husband in his Arcadian garb, but instinctively loves him for his haunting resemblance to her supposedly absent spouse. Sombra employs her miraculous power over dumb animals to cause a race to be won by the right horse, thus infuriating the unworthy Sir George Paddock, and enabling the deserving hero to amass a useful sum of money. Also, she exerts herself to reconcile the hero and his lady-love when they have quarrelled. After shining, generally, like lights in a comparatively naughty world, the Arcadians return whence they came, leaving everybody merry and bright.

Miss Maie Sydney has all the attributes that make for the presentment of a likely Arcadian. She is most graceful and shapely little person, with a face of innocence and a delicious speaking voice. Her light but pure and high soprano is used effectively in "Arcady is Ever Young" and "The Pipes of Pan are Calling." Cromwell (Smith, afterwards Simplicitas) is funny in the immemorial Cromwellian way. Miss Essie Perrin looks charming, and does some startling dancing with Arthur Edwards, a newcomer of ability. Miss Gertrude Gilliam is a vivacious and tuneful heroine, and Harold Thorley a taking hero. Miss Kavanagh plays Maria for all the part is worth. And there is Doody, the jockey, portrayed by Tom Walls. Doody is one of the queerest stage-creations the writer has seen. He suggests a wowser divine, who, having reaped his whiskers and donned fancy dress, has gone melancholy mad. He is easily the success of the show on its humorous side. The music is attractive, without being sensational, and the staging and dressing approach perfection.

The Bulletin (Sydney), 28 July 1910, p.8

Harry Julius caricature for "The Bulletin"

(ditto) 

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A revival of "The Arcadians" crowded Melbourne Royal last Saturday with an audience that knew this sweetest and cleanest of modern comic operas, and gave to each of its familiar airs in turn a round of recognition such as greets the popular numbers at a ballad concert. The characters were old friends. For a dozen weeks earlier in the year they had said and done the same things, and there was no novelty in them. Nobody looked for changes in the happenings of "The Arcadians," but everybody was interested in discovering what difference a new Sombra would make in the effect of the performance, musical and otherwise. The difference is a gain. Miss Winifred O'Connor has a finer voice and is a more brilliant vocalist than her charming little predecessor. “The Pipes of Pan" is a more telling solo as she sings it; likewise “Arcady is Ever Young," in the second act. She is the principal factor in an improved rendering of the quartette, “The Joy of Life," the daintiest thing in the opera, and she introduces a waltz song into the restaurant scene. Personally, she adds some dignity of height to the figure of the artless fanatic, whilst losing the charm of childish subjectiveness that attracted sympathy to Miss Maie Sydney, though it weakened the significance of the character. Moreover, Miss O'Connor has a coldly demure style, which is naturally suited to the Arcadian girl; for, since Sombra acts as head waitress at a London restaurant without getting the least attention from casual male customers, she must be an exceedingly repellent angel. No mortal ever caresses her until he is invited, nor proposes to repeat the endearment. Even Smith Simplicitas is rather afraid of Sombra. She is terribly good as well as severely simple. And Miss O'Connor, who always looks sufficiently straight-laced for a bishop's niece, would be the ideal Arcadian mission lady if she would but be earnest all the time and a bit unbending occasionally. She maintains a negative air of restraint rather than a positive attitude of indifference. She walks intelligently through her part like one just off the ice.

Miss Gilliam, on the other hand, puts a lot of dramatic force into the varying emotions of the girl with a brogue, and has almost ceased to over-emphasise her words. Also, Cromwell seems all the better for toning himself down; whilst Tom Walls and Miss Kavanagh are admirable, as before. Charles Stone seems more nimble, and Thorley is quite at home again. For the rest, Percy Clifton resumes the glittering bald crown of Father Time; the place of the late Edwards is taken by Shortland, whose legs (alas!) are not eccentric; and Miss Flossie Dickinson is a bright little Chrysea when she attends strictly to business and doesn't smile away from her character. "The Arcadians" is truly an admirable show. The mounting and orchestra management are capital, and the new girls in the bird-bedizened hats are as tall and beauteous as some that went away. A great feature of the revival was to have been the first appearance of a new dancer, Miss Chistie Mulniah. The lady appeared—a bouncing, adorable vision—and gave some indications on the tips of her toes of what she might have done if she hadn't previously strained one of the tendons of one of her understandings at rehearsal. Miss Chistie danced in bandages on Saturday night, it was said, and she fell down as the result of a complete collapse of the tendon aforesaid. A critical appreciation of her continental kick is therefore postponed for at least a week.

The Bulletin (Sydney), 17 November 1910, p.8

Hal  Gye caricature for "The Bulletin" 

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The Revivals

With a mounting roster of successful musical, dramatic and comedic productions to its credit (which also included Miss Hook of Holland, The Belle of Mayfair and The Belle of Brittany), rival impresario J.C. Williamson became concerned that the Clarke and Meynell management offered serious competition to his long-established Firm and so in July 1911 he proposed an amalgamation in which Clyde Meynell was offered the position of co-managing director and Sir Rupert Clarke a position on the board of directors, plus shares in the company, which both gentleman willingly accepted, as rises in production costs were affecting both theatrical companies. The performing rights in all the Clarke and Meynell productions were thus transferred to J.C. Williamson Ltd., which staged all future professional revivals of The Arcadians in Australia and New Zealand (as well as a South African tour starring Gladys Moncrieff in 1914).

Return seasons followed at Ballarat’s Her Majesty’s Theatre and Adelaide’s Theatre Royal in September 1911, and a debut season at Perth’s His Majesty’s Theatre in October, (in which Clarke and Meynell’s New English Comic Opera Company was presented under the auspices of J.C. Williamson Ltd.). In addition to Fred Winn as 'Smith/Simplicitas', other replacement cast members included Alice Moffat as 'Sombra', Margaret Leroy as 'Chrysea' and Dutton Nicholls as 'Percy Marsh'.

Subsequent revivals of The Arcadians were staged by JCW’s New Comic Opera Company or Royal Comic Opera Company and played in repertory with the other productions included in either company’s touring repertoire at the time. These included the revivals of 1913, 1915–16, 1917, 1922–23 and 1933–34. The Arcadians last professional outing for JCW Ltd. was at His Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne in 1939 starring Australian comedian Rex “Wacka” Dawe as ‘Smith/Simplicitas’, by which time the musical comedy had firmly established itself as a popular favourite with Australian audiences, having also enjoyed countless productions by amateur light opera companies over the ensuing years, as well as radio broadcasts in 1933, ’36 and ‘46.

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 1913

THE NEW COMIC OPERA COMPANY

Principal Cast: James Smith/Simplicitas – W.S. Percy; Sombra – Hilda Vining; Chrysea – Dorothy Brunton; Father Time – Charles Albert; Eileen Cavanagh – Sybil Arundale; Jack Meadows – Reginald Roberts; Peter Doody – Robert Whyte Junr.; Bobby – Phil Smith; Mrs. Smith – Celia Ghiloni; Sir George Paddock – Edward Wynne and Percy Marsh – Charles Albert.

Tap here to view the full cast list for the Melbourne season at Her Majesty's Theatre.

Directed by Charles A. Wenman; Musical Director – Andrew McCunn; Scenery by Phil Goatcher

Incidental to Act III. the Dance Arcadia and London
By Maggie Dickinson and Charles Albert.

The Arcadian Costumes and their Accessories have been designed by WILHELM, and made by ALIAS, London.

In the Askwood Racecourse Scene the Dresses are a replica of those worn by the leaders of fashion at Ascot and Goodwood last season. They represent the finest and most artistic work of ALIAS, DUCIET, JAY, PAQUIN and WORTH, of London and Paris; FOYS, McCATHIE'S and Miss EMILY NATHAN of Sydney.

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"The Arcadians” which has pleasant music, a plot that can almost he identified, and a moral, was revived by the New Comic Opera Co. at Sydney Criterion on Saturday. The moral is that the present-day costume of the female of our species is hideous. The authors, with delightful irony, bring the beautiful simple clothes worn by the Arcadians in contrast in the latest racecourse fashions—with disastrous effect upon the fashions. Even W. S. Percy is a more beauteous and decorative effect in his scanty skirts than in a full-dress aeronaut's costume with side-whiskers; yet he jests about his beautiful clobber and yearns desolately for trousers. And if he had really appeared at a racecourse in that simple and suitable garniture rude and uncultivated policemen would have arrested him as they arrested Chidley. Interest is added to the revival of a play that can stand revival by a new sorting out of the parts. W. S. Percy proves himself the good comedian he is, and works hard as Simplicitas. Charles Albert presents a minor part of a modern young man with such faultless delicacy and refined humor, without a single "gag' to assist him, as to lead the critic to wonder why so admirable and so artistic an actor has not been presented with better chances of dramatic distinction. Robert Whyte, jun., does all that is required in the famous part of the desolate jockey with the Motter. When this critic fled the theatre to catch his final tram for Woolloomooloo. Robert was still adding encore verses to his Motter. The new Sombra can be accorded the glad hand, unaccompanied, however, by the Bunny Hug. Miss Hilda Vining is graceful and charming, with a sweet-toned voice of no extraordinary power but with commendable care in articulation. The vivacity and gaiety of Miss Sybil Arundale make the part of Eileen Cavanaugh popular from her entrance. Miss Celia Ghiloni, in the caricatured part of the wife of the Arcadian caterer, is an irresistible foil to Percy's foolery. The dance by Miss Vivian Talleur and Mr. Charles Albert, though built on lines that have now become conventional, enables the enthusiastic audience to see two finished artists at their best. The rest of the cast contributes to a highly successful presentation of this Morality of Clobber.

The Bulletin (Sydney), 11 September 1913, p.8

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1915

THE ROYAL COMIC OPERA COMPANY

English soprano, Ethel Cadman had been brought out to Australia by JCW to play the lead in the Royal Comic Opera Company’s local premiere of the Anglicised Victor Jacobi operetta The Marriage Market at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne in May 1915, which was followed there by a revival of The Arcadians, in which she reprised the role of ‘Sombra’ that she had originally played on Broadway in 1910 and the following U.S. tour. Cadman then stayed on to play other lead roles in the Royal Comics’ touring repertoire over the next three years into 1918.  While in Australia, Miss Cadman received the honour of having a racehorse named after her!

Principal Cast: James Smith/Simplicitas – Phil Smith; Sombra – Ethel Cadman; Chrysea – Alice Bennetto; Father Time – Harry Burgess; Eileen Cavanagh – Thelma Raye; Jack Meadows – Leslie Holland; Peter Doody – Robert Whyte Junr.; Bobby – Maggie Dickinson; Mrs. Smith – Maggie Moore; Sir George Paddock – Derek Hudson and Percy Marsh – Stanley Odgers.

Tap here to view the full cast list for the Melbourne season at Her Majesty's Theatre.

Directed by Charles A. Wenman; Musical Director – Victor Champion/Harry Burton; Scenery by Phil Goatcher
Dances, etc., arranged by Miss Flossie Dickinson

Incidental to Act III.
Dance Joyeuse by Maggie Dickinson
(Music composed by Victor Champion)

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"THE ARCADIANS."

From July 31 to August 6 the Royal Comic Opera Co. were seen at Her Majesty's (Sydney) In a revival of "The Arcadians." Such was the business done that it might have been kept on much longer. The principal characters were played by Ethel Cadman (Sombra), Leslie Holland (Jack Meadows), Robert Whyte (Peter Doody), Thelma Raye (Eileen Cavanagh), Maggie Moore (Mrs. Smith), Phil Smith (Simpllcitas), Derek Hudson (Sir George Paddock), and Maggie Dickinson (Bobby).

"Trousers cover a multitude of shins."—A Simplicitas line.

The Leslie Holland–Thelma Raye song and dance in the third act is one of the gems of the production.

Excellent is Phil Smith as Simplicitas. He plays it with just the right comedy touch the character requires.

As Sir George Paddock, Derek Hudson gets little more than an opportunity of demonstrating—as he does—that he is an adept in the art of make-up.

Mrs. Smith (Maggie Moore, speaking of Smith): In his courting days he used to call me his little jam-roll.
Simplicitas (Phil Smith): You look more like a steam-roller now!

As Mrs. Smith, Maggie Moore fills the part—and the dress—better than Celia Ghiloni, who appeared in that role when "The Arcadians" was last done in Sydney. Miss Moore has a gift of comedy which, with her physical suitability for the part, enables her to do more with it, probably, than any other living woman.

Except for her dancing Maggie Dickinson is a misfit as Bobby. Very indistinct is Miss Dickinson's speech—a defect that must always tell against her in an acting sense. Her principal dance is in the third act. For this she fully deserves the recall that she invariably gets. But there is a Russian step that for such a dance is singularly out of place. Of course for that Miss Dickinson is not to blame. The incongruity is due, I would imagine, to the ballet-mistress who arranged the dance.

Peter Doody appears in the third act wearing a wreath of grapes and other horticultural products. "Who," says Simplicitas to one of the stage characters, and nodding in the direction of Doody, "is your friend with the fruit-salad on his brain?"

Robert Whyte as Peter Doody is a very big factor in the success of "The Arcadians." Mr. Whyte is so good as to suggest that he must have been made for the part. A thin, emaciated figure he looks, with his knees crooked In, and his drawn-up shoulders. With his physical appearance, too, he has just the voice for the lugubrious humor of the role. For an individual performance falling far short of Mr. Whyte's Peter Doody many an artist has won world-wide fame.

Simplicitas (in Arcadia, to one of the Arcadians): Who pays the rent?
The Arcadian: We don't pay rent.
Simplicitas (in elucidation of the mystery): They don't pay rent! They're Irish.

Compared with his Lord Hurlingham in "The Marriage Market" Leslie Holland's Jack Meadows is a revelation. The difference is not due to the characters. It is because of a transformation in the actor. Mr. Holland has done nothing so well as Jack Meadows since he has been in Australia. For the time being he drops all his stiff, stilted mannerisms—mannerisms that are manifestly a copy from someone else, and which with him are a destructive encumbrance instead of a helpful adjunct. Without these (the affected voice, the irritating high-stepping, and a self-conscious, conceited demeanor) Mr. Holland's work is that of a sincere, accomplished artist. Briefly his Lord Hurlingham and Jack Meadows are striking illustrations of failure and success as the outcome—in the first instance of an actor trying to imitate someone else, and in the other of being just his own natural self. For in this latter remark is undoubtedly the explanation of Mr. Holland's conspicuous success in "The Arcadians."

Peter Doody is a jockey that never won a race. Some of his lines: —
As soon as I smell a grid-iron I start to put on weight.
I've told so many lies that I'm getting clergyman's sore throat.
A hair in the head is worth two in the brush.

If anything Ethel Cadman's voice is too good for musical-comedy. At any rate I have heard voices that do not compare with hers command just the same recognition, in the way of applause, and public appreciation generally. In singing—if not in an acting sense, too—Miss Cadman is emphatically the best Sombra the Australian stage has seen.

Peter Doody tells a racing story: —
It was the nearest I ever got to riding a win. The horse was called "The Tailor." He belonged to a tailor. We got nicely away, and at the distance "The Tailor" was leading by four lengths. Coming up the straight I was just thinking what I was going to do with the money I stood to win when the horse crossed his legs and—sat down!

THE THEATRE MAGAZINE (Sydney), 1 September 1915, pp.14–15

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Dancer - Maggie Dickinson

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

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1916

THE ROYAL COMIC OPERA COMPANY

Principal Cast: James Smith/Simplicitas – Phil Smith; Sombra – Ethel Cadman; Chrysea – Alice Bennetto; Father Time – Percy Clifton; Eileen Cavanagh – Minnie Love; Jack Meadows – Reginald Roberts; Peter Doody – Leslie Holland; Bobby – Nellie Payne; Mrs. Smith – Celia Ghiloni; Sir George Paddock – Derek Hudson and Percy Marsh – Charles Albert.

Tap here to view the full cast list for the Sydney season at Her Majesty's Theatre and here to view the poster for the Melbourne season.

Directed by Charles A. Wenman; Musical Director – Harry Burton: Scenery by Phil Goatcher
Dances, etc., arranged by Miss Minnie Hooper

Incidental to Act III.
Dance Joyeuse by Nellie Payne
(Music composed by Victor Champion)

* * * * * * * * * *

These are the last nights of the Royal Comics at Her Majesty's (Melb.). "The Arcadians" is accounting for six of them—six of the best. The co. breaks no records in "The Arcadians," but it does very well. Ethel Cadman. although her warble is somewhat stringy of late, sounds sufficiently charming in the part of Sombra, to which her earnest gaze and sedate style are well suited. Alice Bennetts makes an esthetic Chrysea, and Maggie Moore is a passable Mrs. Smith if we assume that Phil Simplicitas Smith, who looks youthful even in his whiskers, married far beyond his years, so to speak. Minnie Love, as Miss Cavanagh, the adored of Roberts, sheds sweetness and light on everything she touches. Moreover. Leslie Holland is an unexpected success as Peter Doody. His leanness harmonises with his alleged compulsory fasting, and his depression of spirits is cadaverous to the last degree. Next Saturday they start a series of rive one-night revivals, with "The Quaker Girl" in the lead.

The Bulletin (Sydney), 13 April 1916, p.8

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"THE ARCADIANS” AT SYDNEY MAJESTY'S.

The other revivalists do surprisingly well considering that it is only for a week, and that life is now one long streak of performances and rehearsals. Ethel Cadman suits the sweet and simple part of Sombra, played in the golden wig of a blameless life and a starry future. Really she is the Salvation Belle of New York gone to Heaven. Leslie Holland is inches too tall for Peter Doody, the underfed jockey; but he is dismal all the way up, so it doesn't matter. Winsome Minnie Love occasionally forgets she is stage-Irish ; but that's about all one can allege against her, unless it is that her voice has to get on its toes to reach an occasional top-note. Her costume color schemes are clever and her dancing deserves a vote of confidence. Nellie Payne, in a neat race suit and boxer hat, is a beautifully unreal sort of racecourse laddie, and makes a dainty and amusing substitute for a man-actor in a trifling part. Phil Smith is the sort of Simplicitas whose side-jokes even the humblest can understand—a sort of Phil-'em-up-again Arcadian. Side-whiskers make him a junior John Bull studying to be a British cartoonist's model. Derek Hudson, as Paddock, is left in his curious conical silk-hat and without a song to his name. Celia Ghiloni, as Mrs. Smith, has to endure libretto jests about her stoutness which are not now deserved ; and Reg Roberts, back in his unromantic frock-coat, resumes the years which he dropped for "Ma Mie Rosette," and makes sedate love as the punter Jack Meadows. Chorus and orchestra work is good, and the show ladies trail some impressive gowns.

The Bulletin (Sydney), 24 August 1916, p.8

Phil Smith as 'James Smith' & 'Simplicitas'

Harry Julius for The Bulletin

Sir George Paddock (Derek Hudson) with Peter Doody

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Political cartoonist David Low equates Prime Minister Billy Hughes' appeal to the female voters with that of Simplicitas - The Bulletin, 10 August 1916, p.13

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 1917

THE ROYAL COMIC OPERA COMPANY

Principal Cast: James Smith/Simplicitas – Phil Smith; Sombra – Gladys Moncrieff; Chrysea – Alice Bennetto; Father Time – Percy Clifton; Eileen Cavanagh – Minnie Love; Jack Meadows – Jack Ralston; Peter Doody – Leslie Holland; Bobby – Nellie Payne; Mrs. Smith – Celia Ghiloni; Sir George Paddock – Claude Bantock and Percy Marsh – Stanley Odgers.

Tap here to view the full cast list for the Melbourne season at Her Majesty's Theatre.

Directed by Charles A. Wenman; Musical Director – Victor Champion; Dances, etc., arranged by Minnie Everett

Incidental to Act III.
Dance Joyeuse by Nellie Payne
(Music composed by Victor Champion) 

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The only cause for complaint against this week's revival of "The Arcadians" is in the limited dimensions of the chorus that was so spectacular a feature of the long-ago productions. Phil Smith is the brightest and impiest of Simplicitases. and the Peter Doody of Leslie Holland is now so like the dismal jockey whom Tom Wall copied from the London original that he might be mistaken for him. Minnie Love is a sweet Eileen, especially when she sings of her tiredness for violets; Celia Ghiloni needs only a little more embonpoint padding and a trifle more earnestness in her acting to make her an admirable Mrs. Smith; and Nellie Payne is the neatest little Bobbie in trousers that ever was. Ralston's voice offers some amends for his stodgy deportment under an unbecoming belltopper, and Bantock is a new sort of Sir George Paddock—an angry elderly gentleman worked up to a climax which fully justifies Doody in wondering who owed him the threepence. Much is made of the music. Sombra (Gladys Moncrieff) has the fresh. pure warble of one who never told a lie or offered the glad eye with ulterior motives; Villiers Arnold adds 25 per cent. to the previous value of Astrophel; Alice Bennetto looks rather like a daughter of the Land of Platonic Love, where life is one long, harmless picnic. The songs of Arcadee will go into recess again after Friday.

The Bulletin (Sydney), 2 August 1917, p.9 

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 1922

THE NEW COMIC OPERA COMPANY

British actor–singer and recording artist George Baker and his wife, soprano Kathlyn Hilliard, were brought out to Australia by JCW to tour in the West End revue The Peep Show, which opened in Adelaide in July 1922. At the close of the tour Kathlyn was cast as ‘Sombra’ in the revival of The Arcadians (a role that she had previously played in the British provinces), while George played the male lead, ‘Blair Farquar’ in the January 1923 Australian premiere of the Jerome Kern musical comedy Sally starring Josie Melville (who had also performed in The Peep Show).

 English comedian Dan Agar had first played ‘Simplicitas’ in a British provincial tour and made his London debut when he took over the role at the Shaftesbury Theatre on 2 August 1910. He also reprised it in the 1915 revival, which also played at the Shaftesbury Theatre. Agar came out to Australia in 1919 and appeared in productions for J.C. Williamson Ltd. including The Bing Boys On Broadway and again reprised his role of ‘Simplicitas’ in the 1922–23 revival of The Arcadians. After return visits to the U.K., Dan Agar settled in Sydney in 1929, where he also turned his talents to radio. In 1934, Agar teamed with Athol Tier for a cross-gender comedy radio programme titled Mrs ‘Arris and Mrs ‘Iggs. After Tier's death in 1940, Dan Agar then created the irascible Mrs ‘Obbs in one of Australia's most fondly remembered comedy radio programmes, which ran for ten successful years until Agar's own death in 1950 at the age of 69.

In the 1930s and '40s, Dan Agar was a regular guest on Humphrey Bishop's various radio programmes and on one such visit, he recalled his stage career and his time in The Arcadians. Tap here to hear Dan's recollections.

Dan Agar as he appeared in a provincial British production

Simplicitas flirts with his wife

Principal Cast: James Smith/Simplicitas – Dan Agar; Sombra – Kathlyn Hilliard; Chrysea – Thelma Burness; Father Time – Hugh Steyne; Eileen Cavanagh – Gracie Lavers; Jack Meadows – A. Howett Worster; Peter Doody – George Gee; Bobby – William Valentine; Mrs. Smith – Millie Engler; Sir George Paddock – Mayne Lynton and Percy Marsh – Harry St. Hilliard.

Tap here to view the full cast list for the Sydney season at the re-modelled "New" Theatre Royal..

Directed by Charles A. Wenman; Musical Director – Andrew McCunn; Dances, etc., arranged by Minnie Everett

The whole of the modern costumes and the frocks of the Principals designed by Madam Brooks, and executed by Miss Barfield, of J. C. Williamson Ltd., Modes.

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A revival of "The Arcadians" is enabling the jaded bookmaker to "fleet the time carelessly" at Sydney Royal. In the 13 years that have elapsed since the first production at London Shaftesbury, a lot of the bloom has been rubbed off the humor which seemed so fruity in those placid pre-war days, but the music still has power to charm. The Sombra of the Sydney revival, which differs from the original in that a horse is thoughtfully provided for Simplicitas in the Ashwood racecourse scene, is Kathlyn Hilliard, from "The Peep Show" co. Kathlyn is a well-nourished advertisement for the Arcadian regimen of fruit and water, and her serviceable soprano is fully equal to the composer's requirements. Gracle Lavers, as Eileen Cavanagh, makes a pathetic mouthful of the brogue, but in other respects she is streets ahead of the lady who introduced the part to Australia. Miss Lavers has dash and diablerie, and when she has assimilated the great truths embodied in Hamlet's advice to the players, she will be quite first-class. Dan Agar works hard—sometimes too hard —for the laughs he gets as Simplicitas Smith; and a lot of people find George Gee's Peter Doody, with (in spots) its sincere flattery of Lester, amusing. Perhaps it is, but Gee does his silly ahss stuff a heap better. Others in the picture are Millie Engler, Clarrie Hardwicke, Thelma Burness, Howett Worster, William Valentine, Harry St. Hilliard and Hugh Steyne.

The Bulletin (Sydney), 7 December 1922, p.34

Harry Julius caticature for The Bulletin

(ditto)

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1923

THE ROYAL COMIC OPERA COMPANY

Principal Cast: James Smith/Simplicitas – Dan Agar; Sombra – Kathlyn Hilliard; Chrysea – Clarice Hardwicke; Father Time – John Forde; Eileen Cavanagh – Nellie Payne; Jack Meadows – Robert Chisholm; Peter Doody – Leslie Holland; Bobby – Reginald Purdell; Mrs. Smith – Emmeline Orford; Sir George Paddock – Claude Flemming and Percy Marsh – Harry St. A. Hilliard.

Tap here to view the full cast list for the Melbourne season at Her Majesty's Theatre.

Directed by Charles A. Wenman; Musical Director – Victor Champion; Dances, etc., arranged by Minnie Everett

The whole of the modern costumes and the frocks of the Principals executed by J. C. Williamson Ltd. Modes.

The racehorse in Act II. is br c, Dumaresque, 4 yrs. (imp.), by Trafalgar—Quebradra; kindly lent by Messrs A. V. Hiskens and W. Kennedy.

For the Adelaide season at the Theatre Royal (June 1923): Sombra – May Foulds; Sir George Paddock – George Conynygham

The racehorse "Arguebuse" kindly lent for the production by Mr. C. Hackendorf.

* * * * * * * * * *

Nearly everyone in the revival of "The Arcadians," at Melbourne Majesty's, seems a little short of the necessary equipment. Leslie Holland gives a fair performance as Peter Doody, but his only original contribution is a divertingly spectral countenance. Otherwise he repeats Tom Wall's historic caricature of the jock, steadfastly effacing his own personality, until one feels he is being played by the character. But there is no lack of Dan Agar in the impersonation of Simplicitas. A fussy, bubbly little man, with vast self-confidence and a devastating load of musty knockabout business, Agar suggests that he is carrying a movie comedian's slapstick in his knapsack. But he is bright in sundry conventional particulars. Kathlyn Hilliard is stodgy in the part of Sombra, and her well-built soprano has no enthralling music in it. Clarice Hardwicke is mostly lost to view as Chrysea, but she speaks her few lines becomingly; and John L. Forde, as Father Time, looks every minute of his antiquity. Claude Flemming portrays Sir George Paddock as a portentous actor of the type who appears half-dressed without a fur-collared overcoat and an immense cigar. Reginald Purdell isn't perturbing as Bobby, nor is Robert Chisholm entitled to the bouquet which this writer is determined to throw at someone before this paragraph ends. Chisholm is a big fellow with a decent voice, but, until he can divert to his job some of the attention which he now bestows on the audience he will never get on THE BULLETIN'S Roll of Honor. After due consideration the posy aforesaid is handed to Nellie Payne for her daintiness and prettiness as Eileen Kavanagh, though her voice is only an appealing little twitter for such an item as "Buy Me a Rose." Emmeline Orford is an exuberant Mrs. Smith, and Harry Milliard continues to exploit the gargle of vacuous merriment which was his prncipal donation to the "Southern Maid."

The Bulletin (Sydney), 10 May 1923, p.34

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1933 - 34

THE NEW COMIC OPERA COMPANY

Principal Cast: James Smith/Simplicitas – Phil Smith; Sombra – Romola Hansen; Chrysea – Doris Hopkins; Father Time – Charles Albert; Eileen Cavanagh – Nellie Barnes; Jack Meadows – Herbert Browne; Peter Doody – Don Nicol; Bobby – Mona Zeppel; Mrs. Smith – Eileen Pollard; Sir George Paddock – Charles Albert and Percy Marsh – Eric Bush

Directed by George Highland; Musical Director – Harry Burton; Dances and ballets arranged by Marjorie Maxwell

For the 1934 New Zealand tour:  Eileen Cavanagh – Lois Green; Mrs. Smith – Marie La Varre; while the subsequent Brisbane season featured: Chrysea – Miriam Lester. 

* * * * * * * * * *

PLEASING REVIVAL OF "ARCADIANS" 

Short Season Of Edwardian Comedies Opened 

Nothing could better show the trend of modern musical comedy than a revival of "The Arcadians," with its atmosphere of the spacious days of Edward VII. Its settings have not that antiquity which gives to the Gilbert and Sullivan operas a touch of unreality; in fact, it portrays not only the kind of comedy which pleased pre-war England, but gives an accurate picture of what England was before the war. This was the more accurately reproduced in the revival at the Theatre Royal on Saturday night because of the presence of Phil Smith in the cast, playing Simplicitas as he made it, so far as Australian audiences are concerned, when "The Arcadians" could have been described almost as a modern piece.

The picture of the well-to-do little Cockney in Arcadia, where simplicity and truth are the rule, was a piece of cynicism at the time, but at this time and date it appears simply as a pleasant piece of comedy. Phil Smith plays it with that subtle vulgarity which avoids offensiveness. 

Another key character is that of Peter Doody, the doleful jockey. This was played by Don Nicol, well known in many roles to Adelaide audiences, who gave it a rather broad funereal touch. It was well appreciated, however, and built up splendidly for his finale, "Always Merry and Bright." The pick of the female characters was undoubtedly Nellie Barnes as the "dear little girl with a brogue." She has a voice naturally adapted to the light lyrics which fall to her lot, and a lightness on her feet which made one wish for something more than the incidental dance steps which come into her numbers.

Eileen Pollard made an exceedingly good Mrs. Smith. Her frocking at times smacked of the pantomime dame, but her manner and general handling of the lines made it a sound human comedy character, with a genuine touch which the part has often lacked in earlier productions.

A girl behaving like a thoroughly sporting young man, with due restraint, was considered a first-rate piece of Edwardian comedy, and the tradition is still maintained of casting a girl for the part of Bobby. Mona Zeppel made a neat and natural figure of Bobby, in perfectly cut male garb.  Romola Hansen was an excellent Sombra, maintaining, as the part demands, a great deal of placid dignity without losing the comedy essential to it. Herbert Browne was well cast in the juvenile lead of Jack Meadows, and Charles Albert was appropriately sinister as Sir George Paddock, doubling as Father Time. Other parts were played by Eric Bush, David Grahame, Frank Martin, Charles Davis, Peter Gordon, Mavis McIntosh, Violet Woods, Leah Miller, Freda Elliott, Vera King, Monica Rhodes, Phyllis Curnow, Dorothy Greenhill, Doris Hopkins, Nada Conrad, Rupert Swallow, Mignon Fleming, and Leonie Woods.

"The Arcadians'' will be repeated tonight, after which there will be three performances of "Florodora," with "The Merry Widow" on Thursday afternoon and evening.

The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA), Monday, 30 October 1933, p.10

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MUSICAL COMEDY.

THE GLOOMY JOCKEY.

Revival of “The Arcadians.” 

(By “Fidello.”)

With “The Arcadians,” played at His Majesty's Theatre for the first time on Saturday, J. C. Williamson's New Comic Opera Company retraces its steps to pre-war entertainment. Had it chosen to present its repertoire in chronological sequence, “The Merry Widow” would have followed “FIorodora”—eight years separated their London premieres— with “The Arcadians” next, and “Wildflower” (a product of the 1920's) last. The Notion suggests taking such matters altogether too seriously, no doubt; but it might have had an interest for those who care to observe the changing of fashions.

The music of “The Arcadians” is by Lionel Monckton and Howard Talbot, and the revival brings to mind most pleasantly the happy knack of the former, especially, in light music-making. Indeed, it places emphasis on the fact that when it comes to inventiveness, plus a graceful fancy, many (if not most) of the composers of latter-day popular successes are definitely inferior. (“Wildflower,” a week ago, provided an instance.) Monckton did some of his best work in “The Arcadians.” Some of his tunes in the second and third acts are doubtless just the ordinarily slick things of their kind, but the whole of the opening scene in Arcadia up to the arrival of James Smith (later Simplicitas) is excellent in sustained fancifulness and gracefully-turned melodious expression. Monckton was no Sullivan, but he does achieve here a musical charm which at least reminds one of the fairy scenes of “Iolanthe.”  And, later in the act, he caps it with “The Pipes of Pan.” Talbot supports him well in this aspect of the play with the pretty quartette, in pastoral style, “The Joy of Life.” 

The revival has drawn from the present company good work all round. As Sombra, the Arcadian maiden, Miss Romola Hansen contributes, besides a portrait of maidenhood likeably modest, frank and guileless, some of the best singing we have heard from her. “The Pipes of Pan” was admirably rendered (its excursions into the higher registers not excluded). One agreed with Simplicitas in liking “the note with the return ticket,” i.e., a little up-and-down-again run. “Arcady is Ever Young” was another of Miss Hansen's successes, with, to end it, a head-note so soft, sweet and true that the audience's gratification was no wonder. 

It may be remembered that after James Smith (who fell into Arcadia from an aeroplane) has been immersed in the Well of Truth, emerging therefrom with an Arcadian ensemble in the place of his whiskers and trousers; Sombra decides to take him back to London, to convert the falsehood-loving “monsters” living there. The pair, with Sombra's friend, Chrysea, drop upon London society at the Askwood races, where they meet, among other people, the lugubrious jockey, Peter Doody.

Mr. Nicol's Characterisation.

In this part, with which, in the minds of older theatregoers “The Arcadians” is especially identified, Mr. Don Nicol scored heavily. His wearily dragging Cockney speech, his melancholy exposition of fatalistic philosophy, his resigned recital of episodes such as that of the swallowed collar stud that caused him to put on weight, the carraway seed (his food ration for dinner) which lodged in a hollow tooth, and the race in which he nearly came third (there being four starters) were all managed so as to touch forcibly the springs of laughter. Mr. Nicol remained divertingly in character to one's last glimpse of him, his recognition, with his colleagues, of the audience's applause at the close taking the form of sickly mouth-widenings which represented the maximum effort of the gloomy Peter in the direction of smiles.  The song “I've Gotter 'Motter” was, of course, an outstanding hit.

The fun radiating, from the rubicund, facund Mr. Phil Smith as Simplicitas was for all this the perfect foil in comedy. Mr. Smith let no chance slip in the part of the caterer turned Arcadian in dress but scarcely in spirit, whose missionary work among the Londoners involves activities far into the night at hectic haunts of the pleasure-seeking. The sense of spontaneity this comedian conveys remains admirable, and a prime factor in his success. Simplicitas finally utters the inevitable lie, is restored to his whiskered condition and the arms of a wife who had made unabashed love to the unrecognised cherub from Arcadia; and Sombra and her friend bid farewell to the city which (in the words of a lyricist in another connection, seeking a rhyme for “London”) “does the wicked things, and leaves the good things undone.” 

There are, of course, two lovers, Jack Meadows and Eileen Cavanagh, played attractively by Mr. Herbert Browne and Miss Nellie Barnes, the former dapper as the complete young-man-about-town, Miss Barnes beguiling with a brogue assumed for the occasion. Miss Eileen Pollard's gusty, vociferous portrait of the caterer's wife, Mr. Charles Albert's doubling as a skittish Father Time and a nasty racing baronet, Miss Mona Zeppel's thumbnail of a gay young spark (Bobby). Mr. Eric Bush's “silly ass,” and Miss Doris Hopkins's Chrysea, are further items in the production claiming tribute in varying degree.

“The Arcadians” (the book of which is by Mark Ambient and A. M. Thompson) will be played throughout the week, being succeeded by "The Merry Widow" at the matinee on Saturday. With Lehar's famous piece the season will end.

The West Australian (Perth, WA ), Monday, 9 October 1933, p.10

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 1939

• Revived at His Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne on 2 December 1939

The impetus for the 1939 revival was a production of The Arcadians staged at Adelaide’s Theatre Royal by the largely amateur Adelaide Musical Comedy Company to raise money for local charities and the Fighting Forces Comforts Fund. Directed by JCW producer Alan Chapman, it opened at the theatre on 14 October 1939 and proved so successful that its two week season was extended for a further three performances. Chapman then evidently persuaded the JCW management to revive the musical comedy in Melbourne at His Majesty’s Theatre, where he directed a fully professional cast, which included a trio of performers with professional credentials reprising their roles from the Adelaide production: soprano Mary Dempster, actress Gwen Coffey and Joy Parsons, who had danced in JCW musicals in earlier years before studying ballet in London and opening a dancing school in Adelaide. The lead role of ‘James Smith/Simplicitas’ was played in the Melbourne revival by Australian comedian Rex “Wacka” Dawe, well known (and still fondly remembered), as the befuddled school-master ‘Dr. Percival Pym’ in the popular Australian radio comedy series Yes, What? first broadcast between 1936 – ’41 and subsequently heard in countless repeats over the decades (as well as being released on CD in the 1990s and in more recent years).

The nostalgic appeal of the musical amongst both the older generation of theatregoers, who had seen its original Melbourne production in 1910 (or one or more of its subsequent revivals), and the younger generation kept the house full for its limited run playing up to the 19 December, when it was succeeded by the Christmas season pantomime Aladdin from 23 December (also directed by Chapman), in which Dawe played ‘Widow Twankey’.

The Age (Melbourne), Saturday, 2 December 1939, p.18

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 "ALWAYS MERRY AND BRIGHT"

Arcadians Again

By GEOFFREY HUTTON

Thirty chequered years were rolled back for many members of the audience at His Majesty's on Saturday when "The Arcadians" came to town again and the mournful Peter Doody set his hearers humming that unforgotten ditty:-

I've gotten Motter,
Always merry and bright.

Doody's philosophy of life is the most permanent thing about this innocuous piece of fantasy, and hearty folk probably will begin slapping their friends on the back again and saying, as they used to do: "Cheer up Cully, you'll soon be dead."

Apart from Doody, the mournful jockey, it is hard to fasten on anything memorable in this pre-jazz musical comedy. Perhaps it is Lionel Monckton's unobtrusively tuneful score, or perhaps it was the note of fantasy in showing a colony of passionless and sinless immortals trying to reform wicked London. Arcadians never grow old, and the admirers of Sombre and Chrysea 30 years ago probably will admire them just as much to-day. Others may find that they date a little, although they never show a wrinkle.

All-Australian Cast

In recapturing the spirit of this venerable piece, which was being played at the old Her Majesty's before many of them were born, the youthful cast did very well. It is an all Australian cast which has been assembled and rehearsed in a hurry, but apart from some congenital stiffness in the acting, it works smoothly and with plenty of life.

Honours of the day go to Rex Dawe, as the merry and rotund old sinner James Smith, who lost his whiskers and his wrinkles after having been dipped in the Well of Truth, and came out as the beaming boy Simpllcitas. Mr. Dawe has a lively comic style, and he keeps the show moving whenever he is on the stage.

The young comedian Elved [sic] Jay has a harder task stepping into the shoes once worn by Tom Walls as Peter Doody. He squeezes a lot of fun out of Doody's misery, but the old lugubrious comic style is rather slow for modern theatre-goers. Mary Dempster's singing of Sombra is one of the highlights of the show. Joy Parsons sings and dances prettily, but Albert Chappell is rather a wooden here. It is a cast which probably will fit into it more smoothly as the show goes on.

The Argus (Melbourne), Monday 4 December 1939, page 6

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His Majesty's

The Arcadians

Son of the late Sir John Monckton, town clerk of the city of London, and his mother an actress, Lionel Monckton was responsible for the fine numbers in The Arcadians. In the present production at His Majesty's, Mary Dempster, a South Australian soprano, playing the role of Sombra, roused in Saturday night's audience a mood of ecstasy with her enchanting rendition of Pipes of Pan and Arcady Is Ever Young. Her rich tones and sustained pianissimo notes were a revelation.

In Mark Ambient's "book" the contrast of the well of truth in Arcady, with the wells of falsehood at Ascot and Goodwood, provides piquant situations, and in Peter Doody's song Arthur Wimperis wrote delightfully amusing lines. With Mary Dempster's notable contribution to the cast, Joy Parsons dances and sings exquisitely Sybil Arundale's role of Eileen; Rex Dawe is a cherubic clown as Simplicitas, and Given Coffey is volatile as Maria.

… Rather labored is the Peter Doody of Tommy Jay, but funny for all that, and I've Got a Motter was well sung. The chorus was full and rhythmic, with some excellent male voices; but Fred Quintrell's small orchestra, brilliant in the overture and the principal solos, did not attune itself to the singing throughout.

Alan Chapman's production calls for improvement, and the lighting on Saturday was uneven. But the producer's groupings are adroit, and his control of the mise-en-scene was brightly demonstrated in the Bit Of a Brogue, Bring Me a Rose and All Down Piccadilly numbers—the first two featuring Joy Parsons—and the racing scene finale of the second act.

Eileen Kelly (Chrysea), Reginald Newson (Sir George Paddock), Albert Chappell (Jack Meadows), Phil Peake (Bobby), Pat Newman (Astrophel), Doris Whimp, Doris Westney and Natalie Ralne were cast in key roles.

The Age (Melbourne), Monday, 4 December 1939, p,10

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Here, There, and Everywhere

By Jonathan Swift

Joy Reigns Supreme

LONDON had its first viewing of The Arcadians in days gone by at the Shaftesbury as a show in which Florence Smithson took most of the honors with her glorious soprano voice, which was heard later in Australia on the vaudeville stage.

Saturday night's audience at His Majesty’s found a new role in the music comedy to interest them when the young and vivacious Joy Parsons stepped on the stage and simply stole the show, as they say in the talkies.

Not so long ago this lass tired of seeking a place out of the ballet in some professional production and opened a dancing school in Adelaide. Alter much pleading she consented to make this temporary comeback to the footlights, with the result I have mentioned. Her dancing is a real Arcadian highlight.

Nearby where I sat was that great favorite of yesteryear, Alfred Frith, whom I had observed skipping from a tram in the city during the morning, thus demonstrating recovery from his recent severe illness.

History Talks

AFTER the curtain had fallen on some rather boring and unnecessary speeches, I yarned with “Frithie” and we spoke of the time when five companies were touring England with this particular show, while the original production was notching a record run in London.

He told me that he had played the lugubrious Peter Doody and marvelled how the lines returned to his mind as Tommy Jay spoke them.

Some of the old-timers with good memories may have wondered where the [encore] chorus of I've Gotter Motter came from.

Investigation brought to light that it had been remembered in Sydney by somebody who was in an early post-war production when George Gee sang it, and so it was passed to Tommy.

I must confess that the beautiful Monckton melodies brought back many a pleasant memory to me, even if I did sometimes shut my eyes and reflect on the fact that the radio often has advantages over television.

The Sun News-Pictorial (Melbourne), Monday 4 December 1939, p.7

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 Additional Picture Sources:

Digitised theatre programmes (including cast portraits) from the National Library of Australia (Canberra) and State Library Victoria (Melbourne).