AustLit

A column (by William Kerr?) on the 'arrangements for the commencement' of the new season at the Royal Victoria Theatre, Sydney. Improvements in the 'construction of the stage and the disposition of the scenery' had been undertaken by James Belmore (? - 1834) 'the talented Hobart Town mechanist'. The 'handsome new drop scene .. by Messrs. Fitchett and Strong, of Pitt-street' was completed as well as a 'saloon attached to the dress circle'. Of the company of actors Conrad Knowles and Harriet Jones had been engaged but the actresses Maria Taylor and Mrs Larra and the actor Lane had, according to the writer, not been re-engaged. An actor, Mr Winters (possibly Jemmy Winters), is also mentioned as well as changes in the orchestra. '[George?] Peck is engaged as leader, and Wilson and Sippe added ... to the orchestra, while Dean [John Philip Deane] and his talented boys are excluded.' The first performance of the new season was to be Shakespeare's Hamlet, with Knowles as Hamlet and Eliza Winstanley as Ophelia, and 'an amusing farce called Bachelors' Buttons, which has never before been played in the Colony.'