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The Bushranger, or the Last Crime is a 1854 Australian stage play. It debuted in Sydney in April 1854.

The play was about a fictitious bushranger, Charles Graves, and included "a grand series of equestrian feats, bare backed riding."

Reaction

A writer in Empire newspaper found the play a "new piece of rather questionable tendency" adding, "The scene is laid in Australia and occupied by characters who ‘left their country for their country’s good.' We think the selection of plays of a more moral nature would ensure an audience that would better appreciate the talent of the actor."

According to historian Margaret Williams, "If the appearance of a bushranger on the Sydney stage is notable in itself, so is the review, for it marks the end of a decade in which local pieces of a questionable moral tendency never appeared to be reviewed at all."

See also

• Australian Bunyips

References

1. "Advertising". The Sydney Morning Herald. Vol. XXXV, no. 5275. New South Wales, Australia. 22 April 1854. p. 5. Retrieved 11 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
2. "Advertising". The Sydney Morning Herald. Vol. XXXV, no. 5276. New South Wales, Australia. 24 April 1854. p. 1. Retrieved 11 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
3. "Sydney Police Court". Empire. No. 1026. New South Wales, Australia. 25 April 1854. p. 2. Retrieved 11 May 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
4. Williams, Margaret (1983). Australia on the popular stage, 1829-1929 : an historical entertainment in six acts. Oxford University Press. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-19-554398-8.

• 1854 plays
• 1850s Australian plays
• Plays about fictitious bushrangers
• Plays set in colonial Australia