Cirrus@Austlit

A pantomime containing operatic airs and popular songs of the day, the 1878 Caxton text declares the work as having been 'localised, plagiarized, treatised, temporized, satirized, not warrantised but advertised' (p.1). A review of the production in the Sydney Morning Herald further notes:

'It is very happily constructed, and has been localised to an agreeable extent by Mr Samuel Lazar from the original by Mr Garnet Walch. It possesses the rather unusual feature in pantomime of being coherent; and the plotting and counterplotting, although attended with unlimited fun, make it as interesting as many dramas produced here lately' (27 December 1878, p.3).

The references to the Sydney scene include issues such as blackbirding and anti-Russian sentiment stemming from the 'Eastern Crisis'. The production also included a genealogical pageant of all history with reference to Darwin and burlesques of both Shakespeare and recent tragic performances.