AustLit

Re: author's identity:

A letter to the New South Wales Colonial Secretary in 1843 requests permission for the performance of the play Life in Sydney at the Royal Victoria Theatre. The letter is signed 'A. B. C.' of the Victoria Hotel. The Colonial Secretary replied that there was 'insufficient identification of authorship' on the play. Some weeks later, another letter was received under the signature of H. C. O'Flaherty, an assisted immigrant who had arrived in the colony in 1840. In this second letter, O'Flaherty requests permission for performance 'in my name'. A set of initials appears on the title page of the play manuscript, but, according to Richard Fotheringham, they are 'indecipherable'.

(See Fotheringham's introduction to Life in Sydney in Australian Plays for the Colonial Stage: 1834-1899 for further details.)