[
    {
        "id": 211784,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1989",
        "page_number": 199,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "174\n\nunfortunate that practically always only their stage names are known, making it impossible for us to identify any well known local citizens who were maybe also active in the municipal administration or social clubs. Not all pseudonyms were as transparent as Mr. Beverley Newcome, Mr. Circular Roller and Mr. Pickwick, nor so ludicrous as **Mr. Caput as Head Manager, Mr. Work-em-hard as stagemaker and Mr. Llanfair P.G. as the stagesweeper,” but we can never be sure about the real identity of most actors. Still, in a few cases the true names of participants were given (see: Calendar, 13.2.1863, 26.3.1863). With the managers of the companies things stood no better: the names have come to us of a Mr. Doldrum, Horatio Buskin and Peter Proteus, but they are mentioned here merely for curiosity's sake. In some instances the performers were nothing loath to adopt the names of well known contemporaries. Thus the orchestra at a theatrical night was reputedly conducted by the “Veteran Melodist Sir George Smart,” who indeed was a conductor, organist and composer (1776-1867), certainly not in Shanghai but in Britain, where he had conducted, among other performances, the first performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in 1826. Another example was the appearance of \"our old friend Mr Bravo Rouse\". Rouse, always nicknamed Bravo Rouse, had been the originator of the Grecian Saloon in 1838, the precursor of the music hall.77\n\n**76\n\nOne feature that should be highlighted is the absence of ladies on the stage until 1876. On April 18 of that year Shanghailanders witnessed their first amateur actress in T.W. Robertson's School.” Before that, however, there may have been attempts to break the male monopoly in the theatre, to judge from a short remark in the local satirical magazine **Puck, or the Shanghai Charivari”** in 1873: “We hear that the actresses of the Dramatic Club bitterly resent the movement that has lately been made by the ladies of Shanghai in the direction of amateur theatricals as they consider their rights infringed. We however think differently; the presence of these fair debutantes if of more frequent occurrence [my emphasis — JH] would tend to inspire the male actors, and while we should certainly have fewer sticks on the stage, we might have more matches”. Not that Shanghai in this respect lagged behind the amateur dramatic societies in other Far Eastern ports: Yokohama introduced women in 1878, Hong Kong in 1879 and Singapore in 1884.82\n\n20\n\nAs far as Shanghai is concerned the reason for the lack of women on the stage is not difficult to find. Their general paucity in the Settlement",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 211816,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1989",
        "page_number": 231,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "206\n\n(...) Our first favourite was Captain Copp. This is a glorious character and was performed faultlessly [by Benjamin BLUSTER-JH]. From the first moment we made his acquaintance until we took a reluctant leave of him, our heart was kept in a continuous glow by his honest face, his blunt, sea-faring manner; his rugged but kindly touches of feeling, harmonically blended together as they were by his ceremonial bursts of good humoured jollity. Every time he broke out with his favourite stave\n\n'In the time of the Dump\n\nWhen Old Admiral Trump'\n\nwe felt a strong inclination to hear more of it and were scarcely pleased with Mary for stopping it so abruptly. (...) Mary's taste in the choice of a lover was unexceptionable - a compliment which cannot be said with truth, of pretty girls generally. The page who was the favoured suitor deserved his good fortune: he played well and sung sweetly. It is some time indeed since we heard on the stage or elsewhere a song given with so much taste and expression (...). No wonder the pretty Mary melted under the influence of the mellow tones of such a music master\". And Mary? She was played of course by Mrs NESBIT who \"as usual placed before us a lively picture of the piquant and coquettish, but withal modest and pretty niece of the host of the 'Grand Admiral'; and she looked so enticing as to make some of those who were present and near us wish that they too were actors provided there was plenty of kissing in the play and such a delightful subject as herself to practice upon”. (NCH 20.3.1858). Again it should be stressed that all female characters were portrayed by men, which, paradoxically, probably allowed the critic to write in such a vein!\n\n5.5.1858 (Wedn)\n\nJ. COURTNEY: \"Time Tries All\" (1848)\n\nT: Drama (2 acts)\n\nJ.S. COYNE: “Urgent Private Affairs\" (1856) T: Farce (1 act)\n\nW.B. RHODES: \"Bombastes Furioso\" (1810) T: Burlesque tragic opera (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nF: Music by the band of H.M.S. Highflyer\n\nTh: Theatre Royal (C)\n\nN: Third and final performance of the season\n\nR: For a house that was \"crowded to the doors\" the curtain rose on a new drop scene **of a light and pretty character\". Once more Mrs. NESBIT could be admired, in Time Tries All, as Laura Leeson and \"too much credit could not be extended on her for the manner in which she brought before us the wilful, pettish but withal warm-hearted woman\". As her husband, Mr. Leeson, \"Mr. ROLLER was most successful; he has made for himself a 'spécialité' in this line of characters which it would be difficult to surpass or to replace. Mr. PICKWICK played the role of Matthew Bates and by **his judicious, quiet acting gained considerable and well-merited applause\". Mr. TINTINNABULUM (who also sung a \"pretty Irish ballad\") as the Hon Mr. Yawn \"was capital and exercised the propensity with which his cognomen so plainly gifts him with such arts as to make many of the audience strenuously follow his example\"; whereas Miss Fact and Mr. Tact found fit representatives in Miss WALTERS and Mr. BRUSWOOD. Some of the actors again appeared in the closing piece; Bombastes Furioso when Mr. Beverley NEWCOME impersonated General Bombastes, “a creditable performance, but the role was evidently not so well suited to the powers of that gentleman as other parts in which we have seen him\". King Artaxominous was taken by Mr. PICKWICK, Furbos by Mr. TINTINNABULUM and Destafina by Mrs. NESBIT. Concluding, the reviewer was \"especially pleased with the scenery of this and other",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h",
        "rank": 0
    }
]