Flash Jim Vaux

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Flash Jim Vaux
Written by Ron Blair
Directed byJohn Bell
Music by Terry Clark
Charles Coleman
Lyrics byTerry Clarke
Charles Coleman
Date premieredApril 28, 1971 (1971-04-28)
Place premiered Nimrod Theatre, Sydney
Original languageEnglish

Flash Jim Vaux is a 1971 Australian stage play - a "ballad opera" - by Ron Blair based on the life of James Hardy Vaux. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Background

John Bell expressed a desire to do an Australian version of The Beggar's Opera . Ron Blair had been reading the memoirs of pickpocket James Hardy Vaux, first published in 1819, and suggested his life might make an ideal subject. "Vaux was a legend in his own life time but has now been completely forgotten," said Blair. [4]

Reception

It was the third production at the new Nimrod Theatre. Reviewing the production the Sydney Morning Herald praised the "nimble script". [5] The Bulletin called it "as bright and merry and polished an evening of entertainment as is likely to be found anywhere." [6]

The play was very successful. It was revived in 1972 and went on tour through Australia. It has been revived a number of times since. [7] [8]

Reviewing a 1972 production Brian Hoad of The Bulletin wrote "When “Jim” first put in an appearance at Nimrod Street in April 1971, so dazzling was the production (by John Bell) that there was reason to doubt the substantiality of the play... but in this tougher. more gutsy new production by Aarne Neeme it emerges as a play of considerable substance too." [9]

Reviewing a 1972 Melbourne production the Australian Jewish News wrote "Blair gives us tavern fun and roguery in his first half, and intense drama in the second. The turning points of the plot are thinly sketched... The writing is best in the dramatic scenes, when Jim is reunited with his prostitute wife, who despises him for his conversion to Catholicism, and is blackmailed by his father-in-law, who makes his money from brothels. Flash Jim emerges as a man of good intentions and sad understanding of himself, a man who is weak in the face of temptation." [10]

Reviewing a 1982 revival, directed by Anna Volska, the Sydney Morning Herald said "the bawdy liveliness is still there." [11]

Adaptations

The play was adapted for Australian radio in 1973 and 1975. It was adapted for British radio in 1975. [12]

References

  1. ↑ "The Cold War comes to Kabul". The Sydney Morning Herald. 29 May 1973. p. 7.
  2. ↑ "FLASH JIM VAUX". Tharunka . Vol. 17, no. 11. New South Wales, Australia. 11 May 1971. p. 15. Retrieved 3 February 2026– via National Library of Australia.
  3. ↑ "THEATRE Nimrod finds life at its roots", The bulletin., Sydney, N.S.W: John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 20 October 1981, nla.obj-1569568492, retrieved 3 February 2026– via Trove
  4. ↑ Jones, Margaret (24 April 1971). "Flash Jim lives on". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 19.
  5. ↑ Kippax, H.G. (30 April 1971). "High jinks about low life". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 24.
  6. ↑ "Team triumphs", The bulletin, Sydney, N.S.W: John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 8 May 1971, nla.obj-1479928594, retrieved 6 February 2026– via Trove
  7. ↑ "The early days of crime". The Age. 14 September 1972. p. 16.
  8. ↑ "Stone the crows, Jim Vaux would be chuffed at this". The Sydney Morning Herald. 9 October 1982. p. 40.
  9. ↑ "THEATRE The very stews of life", The bulletin, Sydney, N.S.W: John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 14 October 1972, nla.obj-1500011232, retrieved 3 February 2026– via Trove
  10. ↑ "Leonard Glickfeld's THEATRE-WISE Aussie grain improves". The Australian Jewish News . Vol. XXXIX, no. 6. Victoria, Australia. 13 October 1972. p. 15. Retrieved 6 February 2026– via National Library of Australia.
  11. ↑ Kippax, H.G. (15 October 1982). "Welcome return of Jim Vaux". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 8.
  12. ↑ "Sunday radio". The Birmingham Post. 5 December 1975. p. 20.
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