AustLit

Revusical.

In this production, set in a Sydney boarding house, the cast of characters includes a young army recruit, the boarding house keeper (Mrs O'Flanagan), and various lodgers and local residents.

'The curtain rises on a festive boarding house scene,' records the Theatre magazine in its review of the 1916 Princess Theatre production. 'The guest [is] a young fellow in khaki [who] is going to the front... Then the front-cloth descends. After it comes down Mr Kearns appears in the guise of an Irish M. P. from Goondiwindi (Qld), looking for "an ould friend of mine phwat keeps a Sydney boarding-house - Mrs O'Flanagan."' (March 1916, pp.46-7).

In his search, he meets a number of other characters representing different types of Sydney residents, and, says the Theatre critic:

In that way the audience are provided with a lot of humorously skittish stuff. In turn songs are given by Peter Brooks, Harry Sadler, Cliff O'Keefe, Billy Maloney, Beattie McDonald, Vera Kearns, Violet Elliot and Mr Kearns himself... Finally the front-cloth is raised once more disclosing the boarding house - this time with the lodgers at the table more or less busy on a meal, and the landlady flying about here and there. Then Mr Kearns enters. The keeper of the place, Mrs Flanagan, is the ould friend he is looking for! Then the fun - in which all the boarders participate - follows fast and furious (March 1916, pp.46-7).