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Jackey Jackey the NSW Bushranger

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Jackey Jackey the NSW Bushranger
Extract from playbill for Theatre Royal Geelong 1853
Written byJames McLachlin
Based onJackey Jackey, the Bushranger
by Thomas McCombie
Date premiered12 February 1852
Place premieredQueen's Theatre Melbourne
Original languageEnglish
Subjectbushrangers

Jackey Jackey the NSW Bushranger is a 1852 Australian play by James McLachlin about the bushranger William Westwood known as "Jackey Jackey" (not the Aboriginal tracker of the same name.) He wrote it in collaboration with Thomas McCombie, after having successfully adapted McCombie's Arabin; or, The Adventures of a Settler.

The play was based on McCombie's piece on Jackey Jackey, published in Tait's Edinburgh Magazine in 1844.

The play was written that year in Melbourne and submitted for approval to the Colonial Secretary in Sydney for permission to be produced at the Queen's Theatre in Melbourne. This permission was refused on the grounds the play might encourage disrespect for authority, the reasons being "dramas of analogous character have been prohibited from representation in the United Kingdom, and there are obvious reasons, why the principle which renders them objectionable there should apply with even greater force here.”

However the play was eventually produced in Melbourne in 1852 after Victoria separated from New South Wales. It was then shown in Geelong in 1853. Author Margaret Williams wrote this marked "a turning-point for the bushranger as protagonist after a decade of censorship."

When the play was produced in 1852 it was advertised as a new drama by McLaughlin. McCombie wrote a letter of complaint to the newspaper stating:

The drama which was licensed by the Colonial Secretary was "Jackey Jackey, dramatized by J. R. McLaughlin, from the work of Thomas McCombie Esq." and as considerable portions of the drama are almost verbatim from my book, and as I contributed several songs, in order to advance the success of the piece, I leave the public to judge of the motives which could have actuated the manager in thus completely altering the title of the play as licensed. I, however, completely exonerate Mr McLaughlin from, any participation in this fraud, for I know that, he is incapable of being guilty of such conduct; and I have heard that he handed the piece over to the Manager as it was licensed.

References

  1. ^ "The Drama". The Argus (Melbourne). Vol. II, no. 1025. Victoria, Australia. 12 February 1852. p. 3. Retrieved 11 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ Fotheringham, Richard (2006). Australian plays for the colonial stage: 1834–1899. p. 102.
  3. "Literature". Port Phillip Gazette. Vol. VII, no. 628. Victoria, Australia. 22 January 1845. p. 4. Retrieved 11 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. "Domestic Intelligence". Port Phillip Gazette. Vol. VII, no. 675. Victoria, Australia. 5 July 1845. p. 2. Retrieved 11 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. "Bourke Ward". Port Phillip Gazette and Settler's Journal. Vol. VII, no. 710. Victoria, Australia. 1 November 1845. p. 2. Retrieved 11 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^ Williams, Margaret (1983). Australia on the popular stage, 1829–1929: an historical entertainment in six acts. p. 38.

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