My Three Angels

My Three Angels is a comedy play by Samuel and Bella Spewack. A delightful and entertaining comedy set on an island in French Guiana, it tells how three convicts, brought out to repair a roof,  become the good angels of a badly harassed household. First produced in English on Broadway in 1953.

The original text
Based on a popular French play by Albert Husson called La Cuisine des Anges (“Cooking with Angels”).

Translations and adaptations
it was made into a very successful 1955 movie called We’re no Angels, starring Joan Bennett, Humphrey Bogart, Basil Rathbone, Aldo Ray and Peter Ustinov.

Translated into Afrikaans as Drie Engeltjies op Duiwelseiland by Mariechen Naudé.

Performance history in South Africa
A very popular play with amateur theatre groups.

1955: Produced by the Johannesburg Reps, directed by Anthony Farmer, and starring John Boulter.

196*: PACOFS did a production featuring Deon Joubert, Schalk Jacobsz?* and Johan Botha?*. Directed by ***.

1969: In June the Libertas Teaterklub presented My Three Angels, directed by Jane Turner, with Cynthia Lambrechts (Emilie), Nigel Thompson (Felix), Louise Brower (Madame Parole), Jenny Torr (Marie-Louise), Johann van Heerden (Alfred, 4707), Bryan Andrews (Joseph, 3011), John Davis (Jules, 6917), Fred Stephens (Gaston Lemare) and Tony Gild (Espoir).

1973: The Naudé translation Drie Engeltjies op Duiwelseiland was staged by (***) in Pretoria, directed by Danie Burger, featuring Enone van den Bergh (Emilie), Jelrich Koeleman (Felix), Linda Botha (Die Meisie), Esther Nasser (Madame Parole), Zaza Vorster (Marie-Louise), Deric Botha (Alfred), Sidney Rogers (Jules), Pieter Brand (Joseph), Lucas Maree (Gaston), David van Rensburg (Paul) and Etienne Ernst (Espoir).

1974: Johan Botha directed it for SWAPAC, the first play to be produced by that arts council entirely on its own.

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