Foiled, or Australia Twenty Years Ago is a 1871 Australian stage play by Walter Cooper.[1][2]
| Foiled, or Australia Twenty Years Ago | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Walter Cooper |
| Date premiered | 1871 |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | melodrama |
The play was popular and was still being revived fifteen years after Cooper's death.[3][4]
According to Leslie Rees the play "was no less riotous and tropic-hued in plot than other melodramas of the period. It was filled to the neck with villainy. It contained... what was probably the first example of that breath-dispelling, blood-refrigerating type of incident so often copied by the silent films of two generations later, wherein a man is tied to a log in a timber mill and slowly directed towards the engine-driven saw, only to be saved from bisection in the nick of time."[5]
Reception
editThe Sydney Evening News said "the characters are boldly sketched and well contrasted one with another, the dialogue is unstrained and well pointed, and the details of the plot are elaborated in a manner which produces an unflagging interest in the piece throughout its performance."[6]
The Age said "The piece is of considerable merit in its way, and will compare favorably with any of the later productions of Boucicault."[7]
The Argus, reviewing a 1879 revival, said the play "is made up of stock materials and it ends with a stock sensation scene" but allowed "its construction is so much better than the average that there is no flagging in the interest and the episodal filling in is judiciously distributed. It is not a high class play but it is a play one may sit out withought weariness. Moreover it is Australian and most of the characters have a local colour which helps the interest proportionally."[8]
The Geelong Advertiser called it "an unqualified success".[9]
The play was also performed in the USA, under the title Magdalen.[3][10]
References
edit- ^ "Advertising". The Sydney Morning Herald. Vol. LXIII, no. 10, 269. New South Wales, Australia. 19 April 1871. p. 16. Retrieved 6 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Advertising". The Sydney Morning Herald. Vol. LXIII, no. 10, 273. New South Wales, Australia. 24 April 1871. p. 4. Retrieved 6 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ a b Fotheringham, Richard (2006). Australian plays for the colonial stage : 1834-1899. pp. 321–322.
- ^ "Past Productions – HMT – Her Majesty's Theatre – Melbourne". Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne. Retrieved 2024-07-19.
- ^ Rees, Leslie (1953). Towards an Australian Drama. p. 15.
- ^ "FOILED; OR, AUSTRALIA TWENTY YEARS AGO". Evening News. No. 1166. New South Wales, Australia. 29 April 1871. p. 2. Retrieved 6 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "FOILED". The Age. No. 5276. Victoria, Australia. 9 October 1871. p. 3. Retrieved 6 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "PRINCESS'S THEATRE". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 10, 163. Victoria, Australia. 13 January 1879. p. 6. Retrieved 6 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "FOILED". Geelong Advertiser. No. 9, 932. Victoria, Australia. 16 May 1879. p. 3. Retrieved 6 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "The Late Walter Cooper". Singleton Argus. Vol. VII, no. 5. New South Wales, Australia. 31 July 1880. p. 4. Retrieved 6 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
External links
edit- Foiled at Ausstage