Theatre in Bourke Street, opened 12 April 1841 as Royal Pavilion Saloon. Called Theatre Royal in 1842. Closed and reopened August 1842 as Royal Victoria Theatre. Closed 24 April 1845. Reopened as Canterbury Hall but soon demolished.
Only four years after Melbourne was officially named and planned, Thomas Hodge, or Hodges, built the first theatre. Hodge, whose interest in theatre had arisen from some menial contact with the English actor-manager Charles Kean, was apparently a barman. His employer at the Eagle Inn, J. Jamieson, put up adjoining land and most of the finance for construction of a shed-like timber building measuring 22.5 by 10.5 metres. The Colonial Secretary in Sydney refused Hodge a licence for theatrical performances but the local police magistrate gave permission for musical concerts and the Royal Pavilion Saloon, generally known as the Pavilion, opened on 12 April 1841. The musical performance was 'spiced with low buffoonery, ribaldry and interludes of riot and confusion' and Hodge was imprisoned for infringing a law introduced in the 1820s.
George Buckingham offered to organise and direct a company of local players but this was initially unacceptable to the authorities. In December 1841 six leaders of the community formed themselves into a board of stewards to set up an Amateur Theatrical Association to obtain a temporary licence for performances for the benefit of a projected hospital. The Colonial Secretary issued a licence for one month from 24 January 1842. Buckingham prepared the theatre and stage decorations and doubtless rehearsed the casts for amateur performances of Rob Roy and The Widow’s Victim in aid of the hospital fund on 21 February. The theatre was then called the Theatre Royal. It was given a continuous 12-month licence on 8 July and in August it reopened as the Royal Victoria Theatre, sometimes called the Victoria Theatre.
According to vague descriptions, the dress boxes were so low that occupants could bend and touch people in the pit, so the floor of the dress circle must have been at stage level, in Georgian style. An unstable ladder-like stair led to an upper circle of small pens graced with the name of boxes. The partitions between them were soon removed to form a more conventional gallery. The theatre leaked and it was so unstable that it swayed in a wind. Inebriated 'swells' once attempted to capsize it by applying brute force beneath the floor. Successive managers, Buckingham, Conrad Knowles and Samson Cameron were all criticised for poorly prepared actors and riotous behaviour in the audience. Three days after the opening of the more substantial Queen’s Theatre Royal the Royal Victoria was closed.
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