Cirrus@Austlit

Approached shortly before rehearsals began, English surgeon Herbert de Pinna was commissioned to write a number of songs, incidental music, and a ballet march. His contributions included 'Bunyip' (sung by Maisie Pollard), 'Bill's Enlisted' and 'I Love You' (both performed by Queenie Paul), 'Sonny Mine' (Maisie Pollard), and the arrangement of several melodies from other contributors into incidental and dance numbers.

Other songs incorporated into the 1916-1917 productions included 'Kewpie Doll' (written by George R. Hyam, originally sung by Ella Airlie and later by Rosie Bowie), 'Wattle Blossom Time in Australia' (written by Fred Monument, and sung by Nellie Kolle), and 'Grey Hair, Grey Eyes' (written by Nat Phillips and Bert Reid, and sung by Vince Courtney). Vince Courtney contributed two numbers: 'My Chinee Girl' (sung by Courtney) and 'The Corroboree Rag' (sung by Peter Brooks). Marsh Little contributed five songs: 'Nulla Nulla' (Nat Phillips), 'Joan' (Caddie Franks), 'For You' (Peter Brooks), 'Mother Waratah' (Queenie Paul), and 'Down in Australia' (Nellie Kolle and later Grace Quine). Ella Airlie wrote two songs: 'Back to Kosciusko' (Nellie Kolle) and 'Mean Old Moon' (Caddie Franks).

The non-Australian songs included 'All I Want is a Cottage, Some Roses and You' (by Charles K. Harris, sung by Queenie Paul), and 'Pierrot and Pierrette' (by Lenox, Sterling, and Edwards, sung by Pearl Ladd).

While no complete libretto for the 1916 Nat Phillips-produced version of The Bunyip exists today, two earlier versions of the story by Ella Airlie are held in the Australian National Archives (CRS A1336/1, Item 2057).

A 44-page character part for Stiffy is also held in the Nat Phillips Collection (Fryer Library). The library also holds photocopies of the National Archives manuscripts.

The National Library of Australia has twenty-one songs from the show, the largest collection located.

Descriptions of the production printed in newspaper reviews indicate that as an extravaganza, The Bunyip was vividly arresting. An Age theatre critic wrote, for example:

The picturesque vista of white-stemmed gum trees and tree ferns with their delicate foliage and tattered bark, is suddenly shrouded in a mist of smoke. The scent of burning gum leaves fills the theatre. Then red sheets of flames spring from the undergrowth and lap the glowing trunks, licking wickedly at the forest giants; and as the trees crash amid a shower of sparks to the ground, and then the red glow of the fire lights up the sky, the demon flees disconsolate, and Fairy Blossom regains her lost wand, and triumphs (9 April 1917, p.97).

Richard Stone, in his article 'Like A Hippo and Something Else', notes that such was the impact of this 'theatrical conflagration' that the Fullers were forced to warn patrons that there was no danger to them while this scene was played out (n. pag.). The bush-fire scene is known to have been staged throughout the eight-year life of The Bunyip, although it is reasonable to suspect that some changes may have been forced upon it when it went on tour with the Stiffy and Mo company from around 1917/18.

Some additional changes were brought to bear on the 1924/1925 production, with an English scene played out at the beginning, showing most of the lead characters setting sail for Australia. Richard Stone indicates, too, that the scene order was rearranged in some instances, and that songs were added and deleted. For example, the war-time sentiment of the early productions (which included such songs as 'Bill's Enlisted,' 'Down in Australia', and 'Hurry Up') was absent from the 1924 revival. Indeed, nearly three-quarters of the songs originally incorporated into the 1916 production had, by 1924, been replaced by new ones, including the debut of an American ballad, 'It Had To Be You' (sung by Queenie Paul). Other songs incorporated into the 1924 revival included 'Safety First' and 'Swinging Along to Henty' (both by Henry T. Hayes).

Phillips broke with tradition by having the dame character (Mrs Wiggins) played by a female actor (Daisy Merritt). Although Merritt gained much praise for her portrayal, some critics saw the experiment as 'doubtful'. The casting of Lottie Sargent in the 1924 revival led one critic to complain, for example, that it 'consigned the attractive actress to a [what is essentially a] dowdy [though comic] character' (Sydney Morning Herald 22 December 1924, p.5). Other critics have even put forward the argument that, in fact, the pantomime has no dame role, and that Mrs Wiggins is simply a three-time widow searching for a new husband.

In an article published in Australian Variety (quoting New Zealand's Evening Star), Ben J. Fuller indicates that his company intended to take The Bunyip to London in 1918. Of interest, too, is a report in the March 1918 issue of The Green Room (n. pag.), claiming that theatrical entrepreneur Kate Howarde had recently secured the NSW rights to the pantomime.

The show even gained a level of notoriety in Brisbane after the Fullers placed an advertisement in the local paper asking for ballet girls to audition for the forthcoming season and requesting they send photographs of themselves in bathing suits. Brisbane's Archbishop Duhig deplored the advertisement, and subsequently refused church sacraments to any girl who answered it.

ADDITIONAL (NON-AUSTRALIAN) SONGS:

The following list of songs comprises non-Australian compositions that were published in Australia and are accessible through the Australian National Library's sheet music collection.

• 'It Had To Be You' (1924) by Gus Kahn and Isham Jones. Published by J. Albert and Son, Sydney. Re-printed in 1991 by EMI Music, North Sydney.

• 'All I Want is a Cottage, Some Roses and You' (1916) by Charles K. Harris. Published by J. Albert and Son, Sydney.

• 'Pierrort and Pierrette' (1916) by Jean Lenox, Ray Sterling, and Leo Edwards. Published by J. Albert and Son, Sydney.

• 'Nat'an' (ca. 1916) by James Kendis. Published in Australia by W. J. Deane and Son, Sydney.