Frank Clark and Add Ryman are believed to have been the first showmen to introduce Muldoon's Picnic to Australian audiences, with the debut production held either in Sydney or Newcastle in late 1882 (see below for further details). Although Clark claimed the work it as his own, it was very likely an adaptation of one or several "Muldoon" comedies that had been produced in the USA over the previous four or five years. A review of Clark's season at the Adelaide Tivoli in 1905 provides some insight into the narrative and settings:
Mr. Frank M. Clark reoccupied the Tivoli Theatre on Saturday evening, the house being crammed from floor to ceiling for the occasion. Muldoon's Picnic, a piece originally presented over 20 years ago in Adelaide by Mr. Clark, was produced. It is farcical comedy of the broadest type, being composed of two situations used as pegs on which to hang amusing incidents. An evening at Mr. Muldoon's home, wherein Mr Muldoon and his bosom friend, Mr. Mulcahy, are introduced in a condition eloquently testifying to the thoroughness of a three days carousal, and the picnic, which consists of a refreshingly imaginary luncheon, are the pivots of the plot. Other essentials are Mrs. Muldoon... the two Misses Muldoon, a waiter, who, by-the-way, is not mentioned on the programme, Timmy O'Brien, Parson Brownlow, Charlie Lovelace, and a lot of lady visitors to the Muldoons. The festivities are in honour of a new Muldoon baby, the house of Muldoon being scandalised by the appearance (the result of Tim O'Brien's joke) of a Presbyterian parson to perform the christening ceremony. The insult to the house of Muldoon is wiped out by that aristocrat and Mulcahy by means of a violent assault on the parson. Much fun is obtained by the arrival of Mr, Mrs, and Miss Muldoon at the scene of the picnic in a donkey-cart. The 'horse' that draws the cart is alleged to be of illustrious ancestry, having been "sired by 'Gang Forward and 'dam(ed) by everybody in the neighbourhood." The principal mirth makers, of course, were the bosom cronies, Muldoon and Mulcahy, and they succeeded in keeping the house in roars of laughter all the time they were on the stage ('Muldoon's Picnic.' Advertiser 25 Sept. 1905, p.8).
