Parry is recognised as playing an important role in the development of English professional theatre in Cape Colony.
[3] In 1855, returning to England from the Colony of Victoria, and accompanied by his wife Elizabeth, Parry arranged to stop over a little while longer in Cape Town.
The first official performance was on Wednesday, 13 June when he put on Dion Boucicault's comedy, Used Up, or The Peer and the Ploughboy and the farce Family Jars by Joseph Lunn.
Parry postponed his return to England a number of times, giving more performances and working with local amateur groups, notably the Cape Town Dramatic Club.
Their farewell performance was held on Thursday, 26 July, consisting of A Phenomenon in a Smock Frock (Brough), The Lottery Ticket (Beazley) and Buried Alive, or The Visit to Japan (M'Pherson).
Finally, after two months he left and, returning to London in the winter of 1855, was engaged by the Strand Theatre, where, with another change of persona, he was publicised as an Australian comedian and as making his first appearance in England.
[7] Parry returned to Cape Town in 1857, this time with a professional British theatre-company, and built a wooden theatre in Harrington Street.
[11] During the season, James Lycett, a Shakespeare-loving English businessman who had organised amateur dramatics in Cape Town for many years, was accidentally wounded on stage while playing Macduff to Parry's Macbeth.
[12] Competition came early in 1858 from J. E. H. English, self-styled 'celebrated comic vocalist' at the Theatre Royal, Sheffield, who had arrived in Cape Town with other members of the Sefton Parry Company.
After just two months English broke away and set up a rival company called "The Gentlemen Amateurs" in The New Music Hall, Buitekant Street which he had fitted for himself.
[14] The same year, during his travels, Parry, his wife and fellow professional comedian George Spencer successfully entertained in Gibraltar for several months along with some amateurs from the garrison.
[17] He advertised in The Era that he was 'now prepared to negotiate engagements with Dramatic artists for the Theatre Royal, Cape Town'.
On the same page Harry Fraser, one of Parry's actors, challenged his plans to recruit professional players from England saying that the heat in summer was oppressive, the money was poor and opportunities were limited.
[4] On 19 February 1861, several of Parry's players, Mrs Clara Tellett, Mr & Mrs W. Bland & Louisa Bland, Thomas Brazier, James Leffier and John Howard, set sail from Bristol with Captain Ferguson on the barque "Chevy Chase" bound for Cape Town.
[16] The Era's correspondent reported that "the success of Mr. Sefton Parry's Company at the Theatre Royal here has been considerable, and we should think, judging from the crowded houses, that Mr. P. must be well satisfied with the financial prospects of his undertaking.
The Theatre is really a blessing to us, for Cape Town is awfully dull, and we are glad to think that Mr. Parry's enterprise is meeting with the reward he so well deserves.
[22] Shuter Bland, a well known British stage manager, was part of the Sefton Parry company from 1861 to 1862 and participated in 50 productions between May and November.
[25] The following year, 1863, Parry wound up his Cape Town activities and then went on to Natal to close down the Port Elizabeth theatre.
[31] He promised that the style of performance would be similar to that of the old Adelphi, but with improvements that would suit contemporary taste; his enterprise would also draw on the latest skills and theatrical inventions.
It opened on 6 October 1866 with Dion Boucicault's drama, specially written for the occasion, The Flying Scud, with a real horse and George Belmore as Nat Gosling the old jockey, was a great success.
[33] In 1868 he built on a portion of the ground of Old Lyon's Inn in Newcastle Street, Strand, a house which he christened the Globe Theatre with seating for about 1500.
[34] Parry also built the New Theatre Royal, Hull which he opened on 27 November 1871 with a production by his own company of the Post Boy by H. T. Craven and Tom Taylor, The Ticket of Leave Man.
[40] Parry died, after much suffering from a paralytic attack, at Cricklewood Lodge, Middlesex, in 1887, aged fifty-five, and was buried in Old Willesden churchyard.