Busybody
Busybody is a comedy by Jack Popplewell (1909-1996)[1].
Contents
The original text
A play about a voluble cleaning woman who keeps telling the cops how to mind their business and who steps forward with the right evidence in every pinch. She lives in the basement of the office building she cleans and one night finds a body. By the time the police arrive, there is no body and no evidence.
First performed on the West End at Duke of York's Theatre in 1964. Published by Samuel French in 1965.
Translations and adaptations
Translated and substantially adapted by French dramatist Robert Thomas [2] (1927-1989) as La Perruche et le Poulet ("The Parrot and the Chicken"). In this adaptation the cleaner becomes the secretary to a lawyer. First performed at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris on 12 August 1966.
The French play was also translated into Afrikaans as Babbelkous en Bruidegom ("chatterbox and brideroom") by Tine Balder and adapted for an Afrikaans audience by Anna Neethling-Pohl.
For more details of the translations and the performance history of the French play in South Africa, see the entry on La Perruche et le Poulet
Performances in South Africa
1965: Produced by Hugh Goldie at the Alexander Theatre starring Jane Fenn, Kenneth Baker, Robert Langford, Anne Curteis, Angus Neill, Shelagh Holliday and Shirley Firth. Set by Roy Cooke.
1972: Presented by the Bank Players.
Circa 1980(?): Performed in the Bloemfontein Civic Theatre by the Bloemfontein Repertory Society, directed by George Prosser
Sources
https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/4703/busybody
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Popplewell
Theatre programme (Alexander Theatre production) held by NELM: [Collection: THEATRE PROGRAMMES]: 2012. 285. 1. 41.
The Rand Daily Mail, 18 February 1965, 15 March 1972.
Personal correspondence and a CV provided by Otto Bohlmann (January, 2020).
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Perruche_et_le_Poulet
PACT Newsletter, February 1973.
PACT theatre programme, 1973.
Babbelkous en Bruidegom theatre programme, 1977.
Go to ESAT Bibliography
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