Cirrus@Austlit

Buggins's opening salvo reads: 'At the opera house, the attendance – considering the attraction of legitimate pieces, well mounted and carefully acted, have been disgraceful to the playgoers of Sydney, and proves that the estimate I first formed of their capabilities of appreciating anything in the shape of intellectual amusements, was a correct one. The only good house I have seen in a Sydney theatre during the past twelve months was on the occasion of the production of Jack Sheppard at the Victoria, shortly before the company migrated to the opera house – one of the most disgusting and immoral plays ever written.'

He continues: ' My only wonder is that the management continue to cater for a class that has no existence in Sydney. If plays and dramas of a low and repulsive school are the only ones that will draw money to the theatre, I can scarcely think they (the managers) are justified in working so hard to obtain patronage when it is evident that their labour is useless.'

Buggins then proceeds to discuss the Royal Victoria Theatre production of James Sheridan Knowles's The Hunchback, featuring Miss Aitken in the role of Julia, and also mentions a performance of William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale.