Hands Up, or Ned Kelly and His Gang | |
---|---|
Written by | Edward Irham Cole |
Directed by | Edward Irham Cole |
Date premiered | 6 January 1900 |
Place premiered | Corner Queen and Wharf Street, Brisbane |
Original language | English |
Subject | Ned Kelly |
Genre | melodrama |
Setting | Colonial Victoria |
Hands Up, or Ned Kelly and His Gang is a 1900 Australian play by Edward Irham Cole about Ned Kelly.
It appeared to make its debut in 1900.[1] The play was one of a large number of dramas about Ned Kelly that followed from the success of The Kelly Gang in 1898.[2]
Cole performed it, originally with his Wild West Dramatic Company (which he ran with "Texas Jack"), then with his own Bohemian Drama Company. It was one of their most popular works.
There were productions of the play in 1903,[3] 1904,[4] 1907 (In Melbourne[5] and Sydney)[6] and 1909.[7]
The Brisbane Courier said "The performance... went very well through-out, and was freely applauded, the various thrilling events of the drama being graphically portrayed by the various members of the company, who seemed thoroughly at home in their delineations of the rougher parts of bush life."[8]
The Melbourne Herald noted that "a departure from the usual rule observed in dealing with the bushrangers is made, in that the police are not held up to ridicule, but are treated with a respect not always accorded the "force."... The author has striven to portray the history of the outlaws, as far as the stage allows, rather than to present overdrawn, sensational pictures."[9]