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The follow-up production to What Oh Tonight (the debut Stiffy and Mo revusical), A Sporting Chance is described in Everyone's as 'another tabloid of inconsequences, as regards the plot, but chock full of action and comedy just the same' (26 November 1924, p.34).
Since the production is set in the garden of a country hotel, one of the on-going jokes in the narrative concerns 'The Truth Tree', a tree that grows all sorts of fruit. Anyone telling a lie beneath it gets a piece of fruit dropped on their head. The bigger the lie, the bigger the fruit! The Nat Phillips Collection manuscript includes the subtitle 'A Sporting Comedy in One Furlong.'
Notes
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The 'Tree of Truth' scene is also known to have been incorporated into Phillips's 1926 Stiffy and 'Erb season at Brisbane's Empire Theatre. This occurred during the week the company staged The Sailors (30 October - 5 November). The Brisbane Courier critic writes that 'One of the best things in the evening are the series of incidents surrounding the "Tree of Truth", which deals in no uncertain manner with the untruthful' (1 November 1926, p.17). Unfortunately, the review does not make it clear whether the scene was inserted in the Sailors or presented as a first-half vaudeville sketch. It is also not known how similar (or dissimilar) the incidents of the 1926 scene are to the original 1916 scenario.
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Although the Nat Phillips Collection manuscript (Fryer Library) has the narrative set on the property of a hotel situated near a racecourse, there is evidence to suggest that this was changed over time. For example, based on reviews, the setting for the 1924 version was a farm.
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For the 1916 Princess Theatre production, popular sketch artists Courtney Ford and Ivy Davis were brought in to supplement the core troupe membership. The Theatre notes that Ford was at 'his best in the make-up of an old farmer, with half-a-dozen pretty daughters on his hands.' Regarding his wife, the same review indicates that her rendition of 'Just Because It's You' was the hit of the revue. 'A graceful girl is Miss Davis, with a live radiant face', writes the critic. 'She has what can be truthfully described as a glowing personality. Performers with her vocal and physical gifts are few and far between in vaudeville revue-work' (August 1916, pp.52-3).
Of the other performers, the magazine picks out Nat Phillips as the undoubted scream. 'His character is that of a hard-up, red-nosed, coatless Irish Australian with a particularly old-well-greased pair of pants, held up by a belt. Phillips is never so good as in roles of a low-comedy or burlesque character. He gets roars where another wouldn't get a smile. The explanation is that he has by nature the gift of being funny' (p.53). Apparently, Roy Rene's singing was not as appreciated by the critic as the posturing he presented in his singing and acrobatics.
The 1924 Sydney production (Fullers' Theatre) was described in Everyone's as 'another tabloid of inconsequences, as regards the plot, but chock full of action and comedy just the same' (26 November 1924, p.34). It is possible that this revusical was also known as Sports (see Brisbane season, 1918).
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It is not clear whether a relationship exists between this revusical and a minstrel farce staged in 1897 under the title Fun on a Farm (produced by Harry Rickards at the Melbourne Opera House from 17 July).
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An edited version appears in '"What Oh Tonight": The Methodology Factor and Pre-1930s Australian Variety Theatre - Appendices', Clay Djubal, PhD Thesis, 2005, pp.49-62.
Production Details
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1916: Princess Theatre, Sydney, 15-21 July (premiere season).
- Director Nat Phillips; Producer/Lessee Harry Sadler and Jack Kearns; Proprietor Fullers' Theatres Ltd.
- Troupe: Nat Phillips' Tabloid Musical Comedy Co.
- Cast incl. Nat Phillips (Stiffy), Roy Rene (Mo), Courtney Ford (Hotel Keeper), Daisy Merritt, Ivy Davis, Peter Brooks, Horace Mann, Maisie Pollard, Walter Jackson [aka Walter Whyte], and the Panama Six (Rosie Bowie, Bess Blackwell, Iris Foye, Dot O'Dea, Beaty Glow, Linea Burns).
1918: Empire Theatre, Brisbane, 8-14 June (as Sports).
- Director Nat Phillips; Producer Fullers' Theatre Ltd.
- Troupe: Nat Phillips' Stiffy and Mo Revue Co.
- Cast incl. Nat Phillips, Roy Rene, Daisy Merritt, Peter Brooks, Horace Mann, Caddie Franks, Dan M. Dunbar, Belle Pollard, Walter Jackson [aka Walter Whyte], Vince Courtney, Cliffe O'Keefe.
1919: Fullers' Theatre, Sydney, 6-12 September.
- Director Nat Phillips; Producer Fullers' Theatres Ltd; Chorus Freda Hellsten.
- Troupe: Nat Phillips' Tabloid Musical Comedy Co.
- Cast incl. Nat Phillips, Roy Rene, Daisy Merritt, Caddy Franks, Horace Mann, Amy Rochelle, Walter Jackson [aka Walter Whyte], Chester Harris, Dan M. Dunbar, Peter Brooks, Maisie Posner, Jack Dennis.
1921: Empire Theatre, Brisbane, 20-26 August.
- Director Nat Phillips; Producer Fullers' Theatres Ltd.
- Troupe: Nat Phillips' Tabloid Musical Comedy Co.
- Cast incl. Nat Phillips, Roy Rene, Daisy Merritt, Dan M. Dunbar, Lola Hunt, Belle Pollard, Gerald Cashman, Walter Jackson [aka Walter Whyte], Dot O'Dea.
1922: Fullers' Theatre, Sydney, 3-9 June.
- Director Nat Phillips; Producer Fullers' Theatres Ltd; Chorus Rosie Bowie.
- Troupe: Nat Phillips' Tabloid Musical Comedy Co.
- Cast incl. Nat Phillips, Roy Rene, Dan M. Dunbar, Ida Merton, Dot Davis [aka Mrs Roy Rene], Queenie Paul, Mike Connors, Keith Connelly, Gladys Shaw, W. O'Brien, and the Radio Six (incl. Rosie Bowie).
1924: Fullers' Theatre, Sydney, 22-28 November.
- Director Nat Phillips; Producer Fullers' Theatres Ltd.
- Troupe: Nat Phillips' Tabloid Musical Comedy Co.
- Cast incl. Nat Phillips (Stiffy), Roy Rene (Mo), Mike Connors, Queenie Paul, Peter Brooks, Keith Connolly, Dot Davis [aka Mrs Roy Rene], Dan M. Dunbar, Gladys Shaw.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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'A Sporting Chance'
1916
single work
review
— Appears in: The Theatre Magazine , August 1916; (p. 52-53)
— Review of A Sporting Chance 1916 single work musical theatre
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'A Sporting Chance'
1916
single work
review
— Appears in: The Theatre Magazine , August 1916; (p. 52-53)
— Review of A Sporting Chance 1916 single work musical theatre
PeriodicalNewspaper Details
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cAustralia,c
- Rural,
