The online magazine of Theatre Heritage Australia
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Violet Mount: Becoming L’Incognita
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ROGER NEILL uncovers the life and career of another extraordinary but neglected Australian vocalists―Violet Mount―a Melbourne-born singer with a rich soprano voice who went on to woo the music halls of Britain as the masked singer L'Incognita. On Wednesday 18 March 1908 at 10.25pm, a masked woman... -
Lloyd Lamble: An Actor's Life for Me
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Lloyd Lamble must surely be one of Australia's best unknown actors. Developing a reputation as a solid stage performer with leading man qualities during the 1940s, he departed for England to further his career. For the next forty years he was rarely out of work, appearing in character roles on... -
Dream Team: Jill Perryman and Kevan Johnston
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Jill Perryman and Kevan Johnston both forged independent careers appearing in JCW musicals from the 1960s and from time-to-time they got to perform together, most notably in Perth with the Hole in the Wall Theatre Company during the 1980s. KEVIN COXHEAD pays tribute to this dynamic duo of... -
Big Show Offs: The Clowning Achievements of George Coppin and Barry Humphries
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George Coppin and Barry Humphries: two great comics born 100 years apart. What do they have in common? As SIMON PLANT discovers, there are many things, both on stage and off, that link these two larger-than-life entertainers. SCUSE I! Scuse I! Scuse I! In 1965, this was the call sign announcing the... -
Women Photographers - 1900-1975 – but where is Jean?
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A radiologist by training, Jean Stewart was a passionate photographer of theatre and ballet in Melbourne from the 1940s. Her vast archive is now in the State Library Victoria, but her achievements are largely unrecognised. JUDY LEECH takes a look at the life and career of a remarkable woman who... -
Horace Stevens (Part 4)
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DAVID HIBBARD's overview of the life and times of the Australian bass-baritone Horace Stevens continues with Part 4. From January to March 1920, Stevens gave concert performances in Edinburgh, Belfast and London, Wagner featuring regularly. Returning to Australia in April 1920, to receive his... -
Little Wunder: The story of the Palace Theatre, Sydney (Part 21)
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With the war years receding, 1920 seemed like business as usual for the Palace Theatre, with an array of high-quality attractions one after the other, from old favourites to new. Sara Allgood farewelled the public at the beginning of the year and Marie Tempest and John D. O’Hara were welcomed at... -
Book Review: 'Jerry' Hart: Sex & Drugs & Gilbert & Sullivan
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'Jerry' Hart Sex & Drugs & Gilbert & Sullivan: A Biography, by Brendan Kelly, Gaelforce Promotions, 236pp., ISBN 9780994624840, pb, $34.95 Every family has one—the relative who appears at every gathering, not invited yet never quite unwelcome. The aunty who talks with her mouth full and leaves a... -
Peter Regan, 1933-2026
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Actor Peter Regan was born in the UK on 5 November 1933 and came to Australia in 1971 to appear in the Kenn Brodziak musical Charlie Girl following his appearance in the same show in London. Peter also appeared in the shows Damn Yankees, Once Upon a Mattress, and Kiss Me Kate on the West End. It... -
Barry Dickins, 1949-2026
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Award-winning Australian playwright, author and visual artist, Barry Dickins, passed away on 13 July 2026. Barry’s versatility also included being an actor, poet, educator, illustrator, cartoonist, writer-in-residence, fellowship winner, journalist, screenwriter and radio playwright. With a career... -
Audrey Nicholls OAM FRAD ARAD, 1931-2026
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State Library New South Wales, SydneyAudrey was born in Townsville, Queensland on the 27 January 1931 and was one of Australia's most loved and respected, experienced and admired ballet teachers. She was a Life Member, former Graded Examiner for 33 years and in 2011 was awarded the Fellowship of... -
The Sublime Margherita Grandi
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In 2006, while compiling the CD liner notes for TESTAMENT’S Margherita Grandi Sings Verdi, ROGER NEILL took a preliminary look at the achievements of Margherita Grandi, an Australian singer with an extraordinary voice, but who is relatively little-known today. Now, twenty years later, he has... -
The Vastly Funny Alf P James
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Alf P. James as a featured extra (the stage door man) in MGM’s The Great Ziegfeld (1936). Like many who appeared in the film, he really had appeared on stage in Ziegfeld revues in the 1920s (screengrab from Author’s copy). Alf P. James is mainly remembered today for appearing in countless films in... -
Celebrating 150 Years of G&S in Australia
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To mark two significant Gilbert & Sullivan events, the sesquicentenary of the G&S partnership being engaged to create Trial by Jury, and the ninetieth anniversary of The Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Victoria, DIANA BURLEIGH gave an illustrated talk at the Showroom at Arts Centre Melbourne on 6... -
Mae Dahlberg—the forgotten Australian ‘serio and dancer’
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Many years ago, before her death in 2017, Stan Laurel’s daughter Lois contacted STEVE RATTLE through the Sons of the Desert—The Laurel & Hardy Appreciation Society. Lois wanted information on the Australian woman who had held such a strong hold upon her father’s affections as a young man—and... -
Agnes Molteno: The Tasmanian Thrush
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KURT GÄNZL chronicles the life and adventures of a little-known Tasmanian soprano, Agnes Molteno, who enjoyed a successful career in England and South Africa singing with the Arthur Rousby and Carl Rosa opera companies from the mid-1880s. MOLTENO, Agnes Maud (b. Launceston, Tasmania, ?8 October... -
Miss Elsie Wiggins: An Amazing Life (Part 1)
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This is the story of Elsie May Wiggins, stage name Grace Elton, married name Mrs Robert Harper; born in Riverstone NSW in 1882, and whose career in entertainment, theatre and moving pictures spanned some forty years in both Australia and overseas. In this two-part article, ROSEMARY PHILLIS and LES... -
George Alexander and the St James's Theatre (Part 2)
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NIGEL RIDEOUT documents George Alexander's productions of Lord Anerley and Forgiveness at the St. James's Theatre, London in the second of his series of articles, which make use of the digitised stage photos from the JCW Scene books. Lord Anerley (Mark Quinton & Henry Hamilton adapt. of Arthur... -
The Struggle for Dramatic Copyright (Part 2)
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In Australia, as elsewhere, during the nineteenth century, dramatic piracy was rife and the introduction of legal safeguards for playwrights was an uphill battle, as RICHARD FOTHERINGHAM explains in the conclusion of his two-part essay. Play Titles The next reported case, Weekes v Williamson... -
A Song to Sing-O! Downunder (Part 3)
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Following their season in Newcastle, the J.C. Williamson G&S Opera Company members embarked on a voyage across the Tasman to commence the next stage of their Australasian tour at His Majesty’s Theatre, Auckland, as WINIFRED LAWSON related in a further chapter of her autobiography A Song to Sing-O! published... -
Horace Stevens (Part 3)
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DAVID HIBBARD's overview of the life and times of the Australian bass-baritone Horace Stevens continues with Part 3. 1903–1919 In 1903 Stevens reprised his roles in Gounod’s Mors et Vita and Handel’s Judas Maccabeus, in Adelaide. An interesting footnote to the performance of the Gounod is the... -
Kate Howarde: The Queen of ‘Bushwhacking’ (Part 4)
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With the war over, Kate Howarde was looking for a new permanent home for her company and opportunities for other entertainments, while concurrently resuming her ‘bushwacking’ tours. In 1919, she secured a six-week lease of the Theatre Royal in Sydney to present her new play Possum Paddock …JOHN... -
Little Wunder: The story of the Palace Theatre, Sydney (Part 20)
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The war was over, but 1919 was not a great year for the theatre, especially in Australia, with more people perishing during the Spanish Flu outbreak than had died in the war. With Sydney theatres forced to close, entertainment schedules were upended and theatre folk put out of work. Yet despite... -
Book Review: A Life on the Ocean Wave (2nd edn)
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A Life on the Ocean Wave (2nd edn), by Andrew Lamb, SUNY Press, 434pp., ISBN 9798855805994, hb, US$135.00 IN As You Like It, Jacques laments that “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players”. Few embodied that sentiment more completely than Henry Russell. His life was a... -
Kevan Johnston OAM, 1931-2026
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Kevan Johnston began dancing lessons at his mother's, Peggy Elser's, dance studio in Perth at a very young age. He was just five years old when he made his first stage appearance at His Majesty's Theatre. Skilled at everything from Highland Dancing, ballet, jazz ballet and tap, he was a foundation... -
John Clark AM, 1932-2026
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Born on 30 October 1932, John Clark's legacy to Australian theatre is massive. Originally from Hobart, his keen interest in archaeology took him to Oxford University in the UK where he also became involved with their theatre crowd. He studied at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and at Bristol... -
Rhoda Roberts AO, 1959-2026
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Rhoda Ann Roberts was an Indigenous Australian theatre and arts director, television presenter, actress and arts executive. A highly respected Aboriginal Elder, and lovingly known as Aunty Rhoda, she was co-founder of the Aboriginal National Theatre Trust in 1987, and was a producer at the...
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NOTABLE PRODUCTIONS
1 June 2026
My Fair Lady: Overview
Author: Kevin Coxhead
To mark the seventieth anniversary of the New York premiere KEVIN COXHEAD documents the original Broadway, West End and record-breaking J.C. Williamson Australian production of the Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe musical My Fair Lady (adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion), illustrated with numerous on-stage and behind-the-scenes photos; plus... Read more
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BOOK REVIEWS
'Jerry' Hart Sex & Drugs & Gilbert & Sullivan: A Biography, by Brendan Kelly, Gaelforce Promotions, 236pp., ISBN 9780994624840, pb, $34.95Every family has one—the relative who appears at every gathering, not invited yet never ... Read more
12 June 2026
2 March 2026
4 August 2025
19 May 2025
28 May 2025
11 December 2024
17 September 2024
1 June 2024
1 March 2023
SERIAL ARTICLES
Following their successful ‘come-back’ tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1932–33, Madge Elliott and Cyril Ritchard returned to London via America (where ... Read more
2 September 2021
27 May 2021
9 June 2020
(left) Theatre Royal, Adelaide, 1881. Photo by Samuel Wright Sweet. State Library of South Australia, Adelaide. (right) C.H. Workman. Photo by Dover Street ... Read more
19 September 2023
In this, the last instalment of J. ALAN KENYON’s memoirs, he shares more anecdotes and pays tribute to some of the men and women of the theatre and films.George ... Read more
