Review of Joseph Jefferson as Salem Scudder at Princess's Theatre in Melbourne Australia, 27 May 1862
Title
Review of Joseph Jefferson as Salem Scudder at Princess's Theatre in Melbourne Australia, 27 May 1862
Date
May 27, 1862
Description
American actor Joseph Jefferson III, played the character Salem Scudder in the original American production when the play opened in New York. He then regularly performed as Scudder on his Australian tours, the first in 1862, by which time The Octoroon had been toured across Australia by both Madame Marie Duret and another American actor, Charles Wheatleigh. According to Jefferson’s autobiography, published in 1889, his 1862 production of the play met with a "most satisfactory" reception when he performed it at the Princess's Theatre in Melbourne. Jefferson's staging of The Octoroon in Australia ended with Zoe's suicide just as it had done in his original Winter Garden production in New York.