Ladies in Retirement
Ladies in Retirement is a play by English playwrights Edward Percy [1] and Reginald Denham [2].
Contents
The original text
1940 The 1940 Broadway production starred Flora Robson in the lead role. Full-length. Cast: mixed.
Translations and adaptations
Translated into Afrikaans entitled Die Rooi Pruik by C.F. Mynhardt, the father of Siegfried Mynhardt. The setting on the Thames estuary has, for the Afrikaans adaptation, been transferred to a similar type of countryside at the Cape between Muizenberg and Wynberg.
Afrikaans translation by Ben de Koker under the title Moord in Mooihawe. Published by DALRO in 1974 (ISBN:0-86064-123-9).
Performance history in South Africa
1942: Produced by Mary Holder for the Combined Dramatic Societies of Cape Town in the Little Theatre, with Margot Lassner (Ellen Creed), Violet Dunlop (Emily Creed), Estelle de Villiers, Minna Millsten (Leonora Fiske), Basil Warner (Albert), Pera Miller and Nell Angles.
1941: Die Rooi Pruik touring during March visiting Krugersdorp, Pretoria and the Library Theatre, Johannesburg. The cast: Siegfried Mynhardt (in the only male role), Maxi Potgieter, Margot van Hoppen, Hansje Hendrikz, Kittie de Villiers, Marie du Preez and Johanna Smuts. Decor by Willem Hendrikz.
1942: Produced in Afrikaans (entitled Die Rooi Pruik) by Siegfried Mynhardt's newly-formed company, starring Berdine Grunewald and Lydia Lindeque.
1945: Die Rooi Pruik was presented at the Library Theatre on 30 April by Die Maskerspelers, starring Siegfried Mynhardt, Maxie Sheridan, Berdine Grünewald, Hansje Hendrikz, Twinkle Hanekom and Anna Marta.
1945: Produced in English by Margaret Inglis for the Munro-Inglis Company, with Nan Munro, Margaret Inglis, Taubie Kushlick, Frank Douglass, Virginia Pilkington, Freda Gray, Jill Shepley at the Standard Theatre. Sets designed by Len Grossett.
1947: Presented in English by the Brian Brooke Company, produced by Will Jamieson, first at the Muizenberg Pavilion and in March at the Hofmeyr Hall, with Petrina Fry, Dorothea Gibson, Don Howie, Brigid Gibbings and others.
1965: Staged in English by Brickhill-Burke Productions, directed by Joan Brickhill and Louis Burke, with Annabel Linder (Lucy), Marjorie Gordon (Leonora Fiske), Edna Jacobson (Ellen Creed), James White (Albert Feather), Patricia Sanders (Louisa Creed), Ann Rudnick (Emily Creed) and Margery Dickie-Clark (Sister Theresa). Decor by Elizabeth Macleish and costumes by Joan Brickhill.
1965: Presented Die Rooi Pruik performed by University Theatre Stellenbosch.
1973: Moord in Mooihawe was produced by the University of the Freestate Department of Drama under the direction of Ben de Koker.
Sources
The Rand Daily Mail, 7 March 1941 (re Die Rooi Pruik).
Trek, 22 May 1942, 18.
Review by Lewis Sowden, The Rand Daily Mail, 1 May 1945 (Die Rooi Pruik 1945 production).
South African Opinion, 2(4):23, 1945; 4(2):20, 1947.
Brooke 1978. 157-8, 162-164.
Tucker, 1997. 20, 26.
Brickhill-Burke theatre programme (undated).
Petru & Carel Trichardt theatre programme collection.
UTS theatre pamphlet
Performing Arts, HSRC, 1972.
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