Cirrus@Austlit

An Oriental fairytale that begins with Scheherazade, the fabled storyteller and sultana, being summoned to the tyrannical sultan to perform her daily task of telling him a tale. Weary of her position as a raconteur, she commences the well-known adventure of 'Noureddin and the Fair Persian', but falls asleep during the story. With the sultan's daily edict being to decapitate whichever wife displeases him, Scheherazade's life is put in imminent peril. Realising the danger, her guardian fairy Hafizza calls on the Genie Lind-cum-fiddle to come to the rescue. Together, they throw the Sultan into a coma and the genie proceeds to enact the story with the help of fairies.

The local hits and topicalities included jokes on the governor's salary and illegal tender, while the music element involved original incidental music composed by A. Reiff Jnr, popular and traditional songs, and a selection of Maori dances (the interest here being a response to the 'Maori Warrior Chiefs' concurrent season at Melbourne's Cremorne Theatre).

Reviews published in the Argus and Age differ markedly in their perspectives. The Argus critic concludes his review with 'Upon the whole, the pantomime may be regarded as one of the greatest successes in that way of which the Theatre Royal has ever been able to boast' (27 December 1862, p.5). The Age, on the other hand, describes the overall production as incoherent. 'The introduction,' writes the paper's critic, 'was by no means so spirited as might have been expected from the pen of so practiced a burlesque writer as Mr Akhurst'. The review further notes:

'The hits were neither too numerous nor too pointed, and the puns - perhaps were excusable as professing to represent the Dundreary School, but generally they were excessively abortive.... The pantomime was well put upon the stage, but the scenery was very badly managed. This, however, will doubtless be improved on a future representation' (27 December 1862, p.5).

Additional characters (played by a large body of juvenile actors) included Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor, Ali Baba, Camaralzaman and Badoura, Prince Ahmed, and the Three Calendars.