y separately published work icon Australian Music Hall Theatre single work   thesis  
Issue Details: First known date: 1980... 1980 Australian Music Hall Theatre
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Notes

  • 'This thesis is submitted to the Department of English, Monash University in partial fulfilment of the degree requirements, November 1980'. Thesis supervisor: Dr D. Davison.

Contents

* Contents derived from the Melbourne, Victoria,: 1980 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Oh What a Night, George Wallace , sketch (theatrical) humour

As an 'under-the-weather husband returning home to face an irate wife', George Wallace performs a number of comedy drunk routines in the staged version of this sketch. An argument eventually ensues (after the pair retire to bed), when the wife thinks she hears a burglar.

In a review of the the April 1931 staging at Brisbane's Theatre Royal, the Telegraph's theatre critic wrote: 'A sketch entitled "Oh! What a Night," reveals George Wallace as a drunken husband, who gels into complications by hitting his neighbour's wife on the head in mistake for a burglar. Phil Baker makes an attractive wife and Jack Ashworth a ludicrously foolish policeman' (p.3)

(p. 20)
The Prodigal Son, George Wallace , single work sketch (theatrical) humour

One of George Wallace's more popular sketches, this tale is a variation on the biblical story. '[It] loses some of its appeal when set down on paper', notes Katrina J. Bard, 'but, told in [Wallace's] imitation of a country yokel while sporting a check shirt, a pair of old trousers worn low under his portly stomach and a battered hat, the comedy apparently reasserts itself' (p.74).

(p. 21)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Last amended 18 Jan 2007 09:49:46
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