ABSTRACT
Lyster, Hennings, and Stewart finally rang down the curtain on their successful English and opéra-bouffe season on May 11, 1872. While Lyster’s Italian company settled into the Princess s Theatre for a three-month stint under Cagli’s management, Alice, Allen, and their colleagues in the English company were given a wellearned rest. Most of them had been performing almost nonstop for 15 imonths. When they reassembled, refreshed, in September, they sailed immediately for Sydney, the capital of the neighboring colony of New South Wales. Lyster had not taken a company there for some time, so he anticipated a profitable season. Instead, ill fortune dogged him from the start. The only theatre available was the Victoria, in the center of Sydney’s red-light district. This was an unattractive location for respectable patrons, especially those with young families, who found themselves jostled by pickpockets and pimps on their way to the theatre and elbow-to-elbow in the stalls with local prostitutes and their boozy clients. Attendance suffered as a result.
