Disciplined Subjects and Social Performance: Entertainments at the Fremantle Lunatic Asylum, 1873–1906

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Title Disciplined Subjects and Social Performance: Entertainments at the Fremantle Lunatic Asylum, 1873–1906
Creator Contributors
Abstract/Description In 1893, a correspondent named only as 'Censor' was published in the Western Australian 'Inquirer and Commercial News', bewailing the lack of civil decorum exhibited by the audience to a charitable performance at the Sailors' Rest in Fremantle. Although such performances were 'well attended' and 'appreciated' by both the impoverished sailors and local worthies present, the author singled out a 'disturbing', 'larrikin element', drawn not from the sailors but from the 'church choir' and others who considered themselves members of a 'stratum of society a little above that of the majority'. These alleged 'scions of respectability', including the 'son of a member of Parliament, from whom better things might have been expected', ventured 'vulgar criticisms and unseemly interjections', implying that they could 'hear better music and singing in ... their own homes'. Censor noted that if this continued, few 'performers or listeners' from outside of the sailing community itself 'will subject themselves' to such 'rowdyism' anymore.
Item URL
Publisher Australasian Drama Studies
Volume 76
Page 123-157
Date Issued 2020
Language English
Citation Jonathan W Marshall, Disciplined Subjects and Social Performance: Entertainments at the Fremantle Lunatic Asylum, 1873–1906, Australasian Drama Studies, 76, 2020, 123-157
Data Set AusStage
Resource Identifier 79393