AustLit

'Written expressly for the occasion by the lessee of the theatre, Mr W. B. Gill,' Harlequin Man in the Moon is a pantomime with songs set to operatic and other music which is said to have introduced 'any amount of local jokes, squibs and pasquinades' (Sydney Morning Herald 27 December 1878, p.5).

The narrative sees Queen Luna set to be ousted from her kingdom by Larrikinos, late of a Woolloomooloo push, unless she marries somebody more powerful than herself. He is controlled by Malignanta, a witch. Luna rejects Larrikonos's crass advances and falls instead for Prince Phaeton. Malignanta conjures up the future in a prolonged burlesque of Macbeth with heads of contemporaries including Walter Cooper. The wedding is interrupted by Larrikinos and his troops but Fairy Glistena routs them. Luna later introduces Phaeton to her Parliament, but to much abuse. The Premier (Henry Parkes) gives a speech indicating that self-interest should be an MLA's first aim. Luna responds with a speech suggesting that 'if manners such as these disgrace our seats, no wonder larrikins infest our streets.' The MLA's meet their match when Larrikinos returns, and the sun king Splendacious oversees a happy ending.

Advertising in the Sydney Morning Herald records that the pantomime was 'an entirely new and original burlesque stuffed full of local hits at existing shams - absurdities in low life and high' (20 December 1873, p.4). Topical references and local allusions known to have been incorporated focused on the Sydney scene, politics, personalities, and issues such as lawyers, Wentworth, and Buchanan's Divorce Bill.

[Source: Australian Variety Theatre Archive]

This one-act pantomime, adapted from James Robinson Planché's extravaganza The Yellow Dwarf and the King of the Gold Mines (1854), contained numerous topical references and local allusions (including unruly MLAs, John Long Innes's pending Sharebrokers' Bill, the Sydney scene, and local personalities) and a burlesque of Shakespeare's tragedy Richard III.

Set to operatic and other music, the pantomime begins in the Hawkins' Hill gold mine, where the Yellow Dwarf Gambogie makes a pact with the mine manager to swindle the owner. Each resolves, however, to swindle the other. The Fairy Queen Indulgenta, en route to the Desert of Lyons, crosses paths with the dwarf, who forces her to promise him Princess Allfair (who has refused all suitors). The princess decides, upon meeting the dwarf, that she is now willing to marry Meliodorus, but the two young lovers are kidnapped. Meliodorus is given a magic sword by the Mermaid Syrena, but is nevertheless killed. Princess Allfair suicides, but Syrena is still able to procure a happy ending.

One song known to have been incorporated into the pantomime the duet 'What Will it Go to the Ton?' (sung by S. H. Banks and W. B. Gill).