Cirrus@Austlit

OVERVIEW

Formed in 1910 Stanley McKay's Pantomime Moving Theatre staged shows throughout Australia (mostly under canvas) until disbanding in 1914 after a New Zealand tour (as the Royal Pantomime Co). Its repertoire included Bo-Peep, Cinderella and Hey Diddle Diddle, along with several comedies (notably John F. Sheridan's Fun on the Bristol). After being revived in 1915 with original members Bruce Drysdale and Phyllis Faye, the troupe disbanded for the final time in 1916 when McKay and Drysdale enlisted for military service.


Stanley McKay put together his first pantomime company in early mid-October 1910 after having recently returned from a regional tour with his dramatic company. In a 1916 Theatre Magazine interview he recalls this time and the reasons for moving into the area of popular theatre, despite having established a reputation as a dramatic (and especially Shakespearian) actor, director and producer:

• I next procured a portable tent with a seating capacity of 1500 and a stage correspondingly large. At this time I was struck by the scarcity of touring musical shows and decided that my first venture would be one of a musical character. I chose pantomime for preference, as no touring company other than the late John Sheridan's (who played only a few towns), had exploited 'panto' through Inland [sic] Australia.... In four weeks time the libretto and music were written, the wardrobes made by Zenda, scenery (including a transformation scene) painted by Harry Whaite, the moving theatre and the one hundred and one etcetera's that go with it specially built, the company organised and rehearsed, and the panto produced at Mudgee, a town about 200 miles from Sydney... I might mention that after these preliminary necessities and the first class fares for thirty-two people had been paid I boarded the train solvent - and only solvent. My capital, which I carried in my vest pocket, consisted of 1/6... However, my credit must have been good, for the [Mudgee] shopkeepers were pleased to send along anything that was required ('What About the Rabbits?' p.42).

The company, initially billed as Stanley McKay's Pantomime Moving Theatre (and later known as the Royal Pantomime Company) was headed by Bruce Drysdale, Phyllis Faye, Ruby Davies, Dot Ireland, and Vicky Miller, all of whom later became established high-profile vaudeville performers in Australia. Several reports from this period indicate that the company comprised between 35 to 38 performer.

Following what was ostensibly an 'out-of-town' tryout, McKay opened a season at Sydney's Exhibition Building in Alfred Park on Christmas Eve 1910. This was followed by a tour of the Northern New South Wales regions, with the itinerary Western Hunter town of Singleton up to Grafton and Lismore. The popularity of the company's feature production, the Harry Taylor-written panto, Bo-Peep, was such that it continued to be staged by his companies on a regular basis up until at least 1916. The company's back-up production in 1911 was The Merry Maid of Malta (staged during longer seasons).

In mid-1911 McKay's company went through Queensland under the auspices of Harry Clay, the Sydney-based vaudeville entrepreneur who had been sending his own companies through the state annually since 1901. Advertised as the largest production ever toured in the Commonwealth, by all accounts much of the public's initial interest lay in the size of the mammoth mining tent the company used: it is said to have by then seated some 2,000 people and taken several days to erect. The critical responses to the shows themselves were also overwhelmingly enthusiastic.

While the Bo-Peep tour travelled by rail and steamer, McKay's other tours around this period involved a variety of methods, including stage coach, bullock wagons, cars, trucks, and even sulkies. In some instances, the distances travelled (and in the harshest of conditions) indicate how hardy these show people were. In his 'What About the Rabbits?' interview, McKay recalls, for example, the close of the Clay tour when his company had to 'jump from Mackay in North Queensland to the Riverina in South-western NSW in order to make a certain show date - a distance of 1600 miles' (p.42). After a year on the road, the company once again returned to Sydney, opening at Manly in December with Bo-Peep. The Theatre suggested, even then, that McKay's 'unflagging energy must certainly bring him to the front someday as one of Sydney's biggest theatrical managers' (January 1912, p.6).

After the close of the Sydney season in January 1912 the company toured relentlessly through Northern New South Wales and Queensland before turning south to play dates in southern New South Wales and Victoria. Another New South Wales tour followed before the company headed to New Zealand in October 1913. This Dominion tour was the result of a co-production deal McKay struck with George Stephenson and Auckland-based manager/promoter Alf Linley. By this stage, too, the company's repertoire included several additional pantomimes - notably Hey Diddle Diddle and the Man in the Moon and Old Mother Hubbard. Billed primarily as the Royal Pantomime Company (and sometimes as the Bo-Peep Company), the troupe remained in New Zealand through until March 1914. Several New Zealand newspapers record that the company had by then increased its number of performers (and presumably musicians and other production crew) to 52 for the Dominion tour.

Following a one-night season in Lower Hut (near Wellington) on 12 March, a show which was reportedly the first-ever professional production to be staged in the town, the company, returned to Australia where it disbanded. While the subsequent movements of the various performers is yet to be established, Bruce Drysdale is recorded as having appeared in Rockhampton in June as a member of an unnamed vaudeville company (Morning Bulletin 11 June 1914, p.2).

A few weeks after closing down the Royal Pantomime Company McKay formed another troupe around the artists Will Raynor, Fred Keeley, Annie Lillilund and the Aldous Trio. That troupe, which soon afterwards also featured acrobatic dame comedian Jim Gerald and principle boy Essie Jennings, became known as Stanley McKay's New Pantomime Company (and later as the No 1 Pantomime Company). Former Royal Pantomime Company-member, Phyllis Faye (also the wife of Bruce Drysdale) was also briefly a member of the No 1 Company in 1914.

In early April 1915 Stanley McKay formed a second pantomime company for a Tasmanian tour. The No 1 company was then in Broken Hill prior to playing engagements in Adelaide and Western Australia. In support of the claim that this was a newly formed troupe is a report in the 29 March 1915 edition of Hobart Mercury which notes that 'the cast for the production of Stanley McKay's Bo-Peep pantomime, to be staged at the Theatre Royal on Saturday next has been finally decided upon, and Mr Bruce Drysdale is to fill the role of Belinda Bumpkin and Miss Phyllis Faye will take the part of principal boy' (p.3) Although the same report later records that the 'production [was to] be presented in the same gorgeous manner as during the Melbourne season,' advertising and reviews of the Melbourne suburban and Bijou Theatre engagements indicate that these were staged by the Jim Gerald/No 1 Company. Other key members of the No 2 troupe were Harry Little, and Esmee McLennan.

Following the Tasmanian engagements the No 2 Company, then being managed by Leslie Smith, toured through Queensland. Its repertoire comprised Bo-Peep, Cinderella, Old Mother Hubbard, Mother Goose and John F. Sheridan's 'great Irish musical comedy' Fun on the Bristol; Or, The Widow O'Brien (Theatre Magazine September 1915, pp.52-53). When the No 1 Company left Australia in December for New Zealand, McKay brought the No 2 Company back to Sydney, where it produced its version of Bo-Peep at Harry Clay's Bridge Theatre (Australian Variety 12 January 1916, n. pag.). The company then briefly returned to Queensland. One of its last known engagements was a season in Brisbane at the Theatre Royal in March. Shortly afterwards McKay closed down both of his company's after having made the decision to enlist in the Australian Imperial Forces. Several other members of the organisation, notably Jim Gerald and Bruce Drysdale also enlisted.

McKay resumed his entrepreneurial activities upon returning to Australia after the war. This included the establishment of further touring pantomime troupes. Although these companies are known to have staged some of the same productions, there was very little (if any) association between these post-war ventures and the companies he operated prior to 1916.