AustLit

Billed in advertising as 'A colossal collection of funny folk, gorgeous scenes and grandeur... a multitude of novelties, beautiful dresses, whimsical ideas and charming music... the show of a thousand and one delights [that is] fun for all from five to eighty-five' (Brisbane Courier 27 December 1925, p.2), the pantomime is also said to have contained 'the usual allusions to events and men of the moment and ambiguities in the best Fuller style' (Sydney Morning Herald 28 December 1925, p.4).

The action, which unfolds over two acts (sixteen scenes), including such settings as 'Davy Jones' Locker', 'Cannibal Island', 'The Wedding Palace', 'Aboard the Good Ship Nancy Lee', and 'The Palace of Rainbow Land', begins in Hull, where we meet the principal characters, Robinson Crusoe, his mother (Mrs Crusoe), Will Atkins (Crusoe's rival for the affection of Polly Perkins), Angelina (a disappointed lover and the daughter of the villainous Baron Deadbroke), Alice (the village belle), and her lover, a mate on the good ship Nancy Lee. After Crusoe sails off to seek his fortune, his ship is sunk by Will Atkins, and he finds himself stranded on Rainbow Island. It is here that he meets Friday and gets into all sorts of impossible situations involving cannibals, fairies, sea-nymphs, and a giant octopus and its ally King Microbe. Other characters include village maidens, sailors, castaways, and a cannibal king, along with acrobats, tumblers, and ballet girls.

One of the songs known to have been incorporated into the 1926 Brisbane season was the concerted number 'Baby's Rainbow Trail' (sung by Mary Laurence). A 'realistic cannibal ballet' staged in the second half of the pantomime is said to have been a replica of an actual Zulu war dance.