Review of Australian Melodrama: Eighty Years of Popular Theatre by Eric Irvin

Abstract

It is not particularly easy to get a complete, accurate or sympathetic picture of nineteenth century drama and theatre in Australia such that students (who most demand such things) can see it clearly in the contexts both of Australian history and of the theatrical practices of the time. Without such information too it is difficult to understand the situation of the current Australian theatre industry which, despite the advances towards autonomy of the last decade, still runs essentially along the commercial and colonialist lines laid down during the era of intensive settlement last century.

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Published 1 May 1983 in Volume 11 No. 1. Subjects: Australian theatre, Melodrama.

Cite as: Kelly, Veronica. ‘Review of Australian Melodrama: Eighty Years of Popular Theatre by Eric Irvin.’ Australian Literary Studies, vol. 11, no. 1, 1983, doi: 10.20314/als.27ebb15656.