Thunderbolt (play)

Last updated

Thunderbolt
Written byA. Joseph
Ambrose Pratt
Based on Three Years with Thunderbolt
by William Monckton
CharactersCaptain Thunderbolt
Date premiered14 October 1905 [1]
Place premieredTheatre Royal, Sydney
Original languageEnglish

Thunderbolt is a 1905 Australian play about the bushranger Captain Thunderbolt, based on the book Three Years with Thunderbolt by William Monckton. [2]

Contents

Monckton's narrative was serialised in The Argus newspaper. It was popular and was adapted by Ambrose Pratt and A. Joseph for the stage in 1905. [3] [4]

Producer William Anderson said "This production is absolutely Australian. It has been written by Australian playwrights. The characters are Australian notabilities. The scenery has been painted by Australian painters. It will be acted by Australian artists, and played before Australian audiences. Advance Australia!" [5]

Reception

The Bulletin said "the house most obviously liked it. No howling London melodrama of the last two Anderson seasons has been better received. As a piece of entertainment it answered its purpose. The Andersonian audience wants plenty of action, and “Thunderbolt” supplies that... You get an evening of Thunderbolt with an interesting and reasonably sober plot thrown in, and a menagerie of wallabies, kookaburras, mail coaches, and cockatoos to add more local color to Reg Robins’ New England (N.S.W.) scenery." [6]

The Evening News said "Thunderbolt was imaginatively drawn, his opinions and his method of moralising being struck in too intellectual a key. " [7]

The Sydney Morning Herald said "In the plot, Thunderbolt...is depicted as an outlaw who robs the rich but spares the poor, and who, indeed, generously assists the latter from funds nefariously acquired from other people. He has a high opinion of his own virtue, and mentions the fact in verbose language, couched in terms refined enough to make the wallabies in his vicinity sit up with admiration, and subdue the desire of the kookaburras to laugh as they listen to his glowing rhetoric." [8]

The Age called it "a good, honest and thoroughly workmanlike melodrama on more or less conventional lines, in which a sentimental interest is handled judiciously and the sensational element plays a smaller part than in many of Mr. Anderson's imported pieces. There are several admirably planned situations and tableaus, a story that runs evenly and plausibly, a really humorous comic relief, and above all things an application of local" color to the scenes and a local idiom to the dialogue which make a direct and immediate appeal to an Australian audience." [9]

Structure

The play was structured as follows: [10]

The play was produced by William Anderson and starred Eugenie Duggan. [11]

1905 Cast

Cast of the original production: [12]

1910 cast

A cast list from a 1910 production was:

Film adaptation

The play was turned into the 1910 film Thunderbolt .

Related Research Articles

<i>Thunderbolt</i> (1910 film) 1910 film

Thunderbolt is a 1910 film in the genre of "outlaw" films at the time that tended to glorify the life of the outlaw "Bushrangers" that roamed the Australian outback in pre-commonwealth days. Shortly after this film was made, the government of New South Wales banned the manufacture of this type of film on the basis that they were promoting crime.

The Squatter's Daughter is a 1933 Australian melodrama directed by Ken G. Hall and starring Jocelyn Howarth. One of the most popular Australian films of the 1930s, it is based on a 1907 play by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan which had been previously adapted to the screen in 1910.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bert Bailey</span> New Zealand-born Australian playwright, theatrical manager and actor

Albert Edward Bailey, better known as Bert Bailey, was a New Zealand-born Australian playwright, theatrical manager and stage and screen actor best known for playing Dad Rudd, in both mediums, the character from the books penned by Steele Rudd.

<i>Captain Thunderbolt</i> (film) 1953 film by Cecil Holmes

Captain Thunderbolt is a 1953 Australian action film from director Cecil Holmes about the bushranger Captain Thunderbolt. It was one of the few all-Australian films of the 1950s.

<i>Trooper OBrien</i> 1928 film

Trooper O'Brien is a 1928 Australian silent film from the team of John and Agnes Gavin. It was a melodrama set during the "Ned Kelly era" about an orphaned girl raised by a policeman in the bush. It is one of the rare early Australian films that still exist in its entirety.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edmund Duggan (playwright)</span> Irish-Australian actor and playwright (1862-1938)

Edmund Duggan was an Irish-born actor and playwright who worked in Australia. He is best known for writing a number of plays with Bert Bailey including The Squatter's Daughter (1907) and On Our Selection (1912). His solo career was less successful than Bailey's. His sister Eugenie was known as "The Queen of Melodrama" and married noted theatre producer William Anderson, for whom Duggan frequently worked as an actor, writer and stage manager.

The Squatter's Daughter is a 1910 Australian silent film based on the popular play by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan.

<i>Captain Midnight, the Bush King</i> 1911 film

Captain Midnight, the Bush King is a 1911 Australian silent Western film about the fictitious bushranger Captain Midnight. It was the directorial debut of actor Alfred Rolfe. The film is based on the play of same name by W. J. Lincoln and Alfred Dampier. Captain Midnight, the Bush King is now considered lost.

The Christian is a 1911 Australian silent film starring Roy Redgrave and Eugenie Duggan. It was the first film directed by Franklyn Barrett. The film was based on Hall Caine's play adapted from his novel The Christian which was published in 1897 and the first British novel to sell one million copies. It is considered a lost film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Anderson (theatre)</span> Australian theatre manager (1868-1940)

William Anderson was an Australian theatre entrepreneur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugenie Duggan</span> Australian actress

Eugenie Marian Duggan was a popular Australian stage actress. She was the sister of the actors Edmund, P.J. and Kathleen Duggan. She began studying acting, won a number of elocution competitions and made her professional debut in 1890 in Romeo and Juliet.

The Kelly Gang; or the Career of the Outlaw, Ned Kelly, the Iron-clad Bushranger of Australia is an 1899 Australian play about bushranger Ned Kelly. It is attributed to Arnold Denham but it is likely a number of other writers worked on it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Irham Cole</span> Australian theatrical entrepreneur and film director

Edward Irham Cole was an Australian theatrical entrepreneur and film director whose productions represented a synthesis of Wild West show and stage melodrama. He managed a theatre company, called the Bohemian Dramatic Company, that performed in semi-permanent and temporary tent theatres. During 1910 and 1911 Cole directed a number of silent films, adapted from his stage plays and using actors from his theatre company.

The Squatter and the Clown is a 1911 Australian silent film. It was one of a series of films made by Edward Irham Cole's Bohemian Dramatic Company.

The Border Police of New South Wales was a frontier policing body introduced by the colonial government of New South Wales with the passing of the Crown Lands Unauthorised Occupation Act 1839.

Three Years with Thunderbolt is a 1905 memoir by William Monckton concerning his time with the Australian bushranger Captain Thunderbolt. The book was edited by Ambrose Pratt.

The Democrat, or Under the Southern Cross is a 1891 Australian stage play by Edmund Duggan about the Eureka Rebellion. It is the first known stage play on this conflict. It was revived in 1897 under the title Eureka Stockade.

The Winning Ticket is a 1910 Australian play about the Melbourne Cup by William Anderson and Temple Harrison. It was also produced by Anderson.

Coo-ee; Or, Wild Days in the Bush is a 1906 Australian play by Edward William O'Sullivan. It was originally performed by Edward Irham Cole's Bohemian Dramatic Company.

Outlaw Kelly is a 1899 Australian play about Ned Kelly by Lancelot Booth.

References

  1. ↑ "Advertising". The Sydney Morning Herald . No. 21, 088. New South Wales, Australia. 7 October 1905. p. 2. Retrieved 7 April 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  2. ↑ "THEATRE ROYAL". The Sydney Morning Herald . No. 21, 094. New South Wales, Australia. 14 October 1905. p. 16. Retrieved 7 April 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  3. ↑ "The Theatrical Gazette". The Referee . Sydney: National Library of Australia. 11 October 1905. p. 10. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
  4. ↑ Synopsis of the play is at "Amusements". The Register . Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 31 January 1916. p. 7. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  5. ↑ "Sydney Shows". Punch. Victoria, Australia. 12 October 1905. p. 31. Retrieved 7 April 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  6. ↑ "SUNDRY SHOWS.", The bulletin., Sydney, N.S.W: John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 19 October 1905, nla.obj-669849007, retrieved 7 April 2024– via Trove
  7. ↑ "AMUSEMENTS". Evening News . No. 11, 966. New South Wales, Australia. 16 October 1905. p. 8. Retrieved 7 April 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  8. ↑ "THEATRE ROYAL—"THUNDERBOLT."". The Sydney Morning Herald . No. 21, 095. New South Wales, Australia. 16 October 1905. p. 3. Retrieved 7 April 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  9. ↑ "AMUSEMENTS". The Age . No. 16062. Victoria, Australia. 3 September 1906. p. 8. Retrieved 7 April 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  10. ↑ "Advertising". The Argus . Melbourne: National Library of Australia. 21 May 1910. p. 20. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  11. ↑ "Advertising". The Sydney Morning Herald . National Library of Australia. 20 October 1905. p. 2. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  12. ↑ "THE THEATRICAL GAZETTE". Referee. No. 988. New South Wales, Australia. 11 October 1905. p. 10. Retrieved 7 April 2024– via National Library of Australia.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.