Cirrus@Austlit

Although possibly adapted from Nelson Lee Jnr's pantomime Harlequin Baron Munchausen (first staged in 1858 at Astley's Theatre, London), the Melbourne Argus (quoting the Haymarket Theatre's manager) indicates that the original source had been produced at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden (27 December 1865, p.6).

The pantomime begins with a scene set in a romantic fairy dell, wherein reside Fairy Pariboo and Queen Aurora. The storyline then shifts to a castellated ruin where the audience is introduced to Lady Ethelinda (daughter of Baron Puffendorf), who is in the power of Aufullicoldandbyteyyurnoso, the Wizard of the Green Isle. She is eventually saved by the swashbuckling Baron Munchausen, but not before he undergoes many adventures and impossible situations, including securing his horse to the church steeple, pulling a wolf inside out, being projected out of a mortar from Tower Hill to Bermondsey, and visiting the moon.

The critic writing for Bell's Life in Victoria notes in relation to the music that Akhurst had 'introduced some parodies and reminiscences of songs and dances brought into favour by "Arrah-na-Pogue" and the Christy Minstrels' (6 January 1866, p.2).