Catching the Kellys

Catching the Kellys is a 1879 Australian comic stage play by Joseph Pickersgill about the pursuit for Ned Kelly.

Reception

The Argus said "the piece is simply "catchpenny". Its intention, however, calls for severe condemnation, as it has evidently been written for the purpose of ridiculing the police at a time when they most require the moral support of the community."
The Sydney Morning Herald called it "a very funny piece, which is a skit on the police."
The Evening News reported it "is most unmercifully denounced by the Press as immoral in tone, and utterly deficient of any humour or literary ability. Business is very quiet."
The Sydney Mail called it "An absurd and very inappropriate extravaganza... It is not complimentary to the police, and therefore delights all their natural enemies."
The Bulletin called it a "masterly farce."

Premise

"A Queensland bush sergeant... is brought to Victoria with two black trackers by the Government, under the idea that he is a celebrated bushranger catcher, and he chooses some other troopers to assist in the search for the Kelly gang. Of course the party aimlessly wanders about in the Strathbogie Ranges, shoot at each other, and are at length captured by the gang in the most sheepish manner. The supposed Kellys, however, get drunk when the valiant sergeant and his men overpower them, and then it appears that their prisoners are not the Kellys at all, but only a company of amateur policemen who were having a lark! The denoument is reached by the black trackers proving Irishmen in disguise."