This was a well-received melodrama with elaborate stage effects, including a storm upon a ship, and an original score by Baum himself.

While Baum does not omit all of Lavender's unsympathetic qualities from Hugh, it is still quite obvious who we are to read as the hero, something Black leaves more to the reader to decide.

The play opened on Baum's 26th birthday, May 15, 1882, and headlined Agnes Hallock as Shiela O'Mara (Black's Sheila Mackenzie—note spelling difference), the daughter of the King of Arran, Con.

Oona Kearney, the female character lead and equivalent of Black's Mairi, was played by Genevieve Rogers.

Although the songs often interrupted the flow of the melodrama, they all grow out of the story and develop its characters, making it a primitive example of organic musical.

The play was very successful, especially with Irish audiences, in spite of its stereotyping, as it was much more sympathetic and, despite all its corny melodrama, did not reduce them to caricatures.

An undated program clipping held by The New York Public Library shows that there were several cast substitutions during the run, including Miron Leffingwell as Ingram, C.W.

Charles as Con., Fred Lotto as Dennie, Frank Caisse as the Boatswain, Nellie Griffin as Gray, Mattie Ferguson as Oona, and Genevieve Roberts as the Prophetess.

performed by Shiela, but it is not mentioned in the version of the script, which is dated March 20, 1884, that is owned by The New York Public Library and circulated on microfiche.

When one of Baum's theatres in Richburg, New York, was destroyed in a fire, costumes, props, and scripts, including such lost plays as The Mackrummins and a successfully staged straight drama ironically titled Matches, which played in the theatre the night of the fire, were destroyed, perhaps in unique copy.