AustLit

Column on the closure of the Royal Victoria Theatre, Sydney, from 'this evening [22 November 1838] until after Christmas day, owing to several of the performers being laid up with the prevalent influenza, owing to which disease but few persons have been able to attend the Theatre lately.' There are a further three columns in this issue of the Gazette on the influenza epidemic including a paragraph about the postponement of Philip Deane's concert, previously advertised in the pages of the Gazette. (Music concert advertisements are not usually indexed in AustLit.) The epidemic continued to be widely reported over subsequent issues of the Sydney Gazette. The theatre reopened on 8 December.