The Bunyip, Or, The Enchantment of Fairy Princess Wattle Blossom
Fullers' Theatres
,
1916
1916
(Manuscript version)x401578
Z977511
1916
single work
musical theatre
pantomime
fantasy
The Bunyip was originally a sketch for five people, written in 1908 by Ella Airlie, a young Ballarat-born actress/composer who also worked on the variety stage as a pianist and singer. Following a season at Perth's Melrose Theatre around March 1916, Airlie invited the Fullers to consider the work as a revusical, but they deemed it unsuitable, since it lacked a strong romantic angle. Benjamin Fuller was nevertheless attracted to its strong Australian flavour; later that year, he gave the go ahead for it to be re-worked by Airlie and director Nat Phillips, as the company's first-ever pantomime extravaganza.
Employing a cast of over 250 performers, the story concerns the evil King of the Bush Gnomes, who has cast a spell on Princess Wattleblossum, changing her into a fearsome bunyip. The spell includes the provision that if anyone speaks a kind word to the now-awful creature, she will be restored to her original form for twenty-four hours. She eventually regains her true identity after various incidents. The evil king is killed in a raging bush fire just as the princess is about to return to her hideous shape, and so she is able to remain in fairy form. The huge popularity that had been accorded to Phillips and Roy Rene when they debuted as Stiffy and Mo at Sydney's Princess Theatre earlier in the year saw their characters introduced as a specialty act in several scenes.
The sixteen scenic depictions by the Fullers' head scenic artist, Rege Robins, included 'The Great Bush Fire', 'The Big Corroboree', 'The Palace of the Kangaroo', and 'The Beautiful Jenolan Caves'.
