Cirrus@Austlit

A poem written to advertise J. Billin's Victoria Hall (Melbourne) minstrel entertainment. Presented at that time by the Representative Metropolitan Company, Ha! Ha! Ha! makes reference to several of the troupe's more high profile members - Will Whitburn, John Fuller Snr, Alf and Tom Holland, Owen Conduit (music director), Amy Rowe, Ada Marvin, the Three Leopolds, and Sullivan and Silvani.

Another of W. Horace Bent's 'screaming absurdities,' The Art Student contained the typical fare: local and topical songs, duets, sketches, skits, and scraps (Age 28 February 1872, p.8).

Another of Horace Bent's popular burlesques, Robbery Over Arms sends up the famous Australian novel by Rolf Boldrewood and the dramatic version recently staged by Alfred Dampier. The 1891 production was advertised as being produced 'by arrangement with Rough Bolder(Colling)Wood' (Age 21 February 1891, p.12).

Although likely a burlesque on Augustin Daly's 1867 melodrama Under the Gaslight (the play that introduced the famous thrill scene in which a villain ties someone to the railroad tracks), the Sydney Morning Herald indicates in 1893 that part of the action revolves around two waiters who go through 'all sorts of antics with the knives, plates, bottles, fruit and lamp found on a table conveniently at hand.' Among the other specialty acts included in the production were a butterfly dance and some American trick dancing (26 June 1893, p.4).