Dick Whittington can refer to a popular character of English folklore and pantomime, or to the very many play texts based on the story.

The character Dick Whittington

The story of Richard Whittington (c. 1354–1423), a wealthy merchant and later Lord Mayor of London, has become part of English folklore in the guise of the story of Dick Whittington and His Cat, which describes Whittington's rise from poverty-stricken childhood with the fortune he made through the sale of his cat to a rat-infested country. It is however totally fictional, with little evidence to support the story of the cat, but the tale has provided a popular theme in British pantomime and other performance forms, especially at Christmas time.

(For more on the character and the fable, see the entry on "Dick Whittington and His Cat"[1] in Wikipedia for example.)

The play texts

Written and published stories about the character date from the early 1600s till today. The first known drama text appeared in 1604–5, though only known by its title. Sinced then plays, puppet plays, pantomimes, films etc have proliferated - usually titled Dick Whittington and His Cat or simply Dick Whittington. The first recorded pantomime version seems to have appeared in 1814 and featured Joseph Grimaldi as the Dame.

Among those known to have been done in South Africa are:

Whittington and his Cat, or Harlequin Lord Mayor of London by E.L. Blanchard (1820 - 1889) written for performance at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London in 1875 as was the 26th Grand Comic Christmas Annual.

A pantomime version by John Crocker and Eric Gilder (1972).

A version Dick Whittington by Geoff Tansley (presumably the theatre reviewer Geoffrey Tansley).

Plays, puppet performances, pantomimes etc. about Dick Whittington performed in South Africa

It is for the most part extremely difficult to pinpoint the particular text used or the author in most cases of performance. Often of course - as is practice in pantomime - the script was simply devised in performance, based on the skills and specialty acts of the particular performers. So the performances below are listed according to the title chosen, and where the names authors are given, these are listed. However, most of what appears below may be considered a creation by the particular director/company.

19th Century

1883: Dick Whittington and his Cat presented in December by Miss Julia Sydney and her Company at the Theatre Royal, Durban.

1884: Dick Whittington and his Cat presented at the Globe Theatre, Johannesburg.

1884-5: Whittington and His Cat, or Harlequin Lord Mayor of London (Blanchard) performed as Dick Whittington and His Cat by the Henry Harper Company in the Theatre Royal Cape Town as part of their first season there.

1893: Dick Whittington; or, The Cat, the Rat and the Fairy of Bow Bells by Augustus Wheatman presented by the Wheeler Comedy and Burlesque Company at Standard Theatre, Johannesburg, directed by Frank Wheeler.

1897/1898: Dick Whittington (a version by Rowland Butter) presented by Mr Charles Hoby's Company at the Theatre Royal, Durban in December/January.

20th Century

1902: Dick Whittington and His Cat presented by George Walton's New English Musical Comedy Company at the Theatre Royal, Durban in December/January 1903.

1903: Dick Whittington and His Cat presented by George Walton's Musical Comedy Company at the Gaiety Theatre, Johannesburg in April.

1913: Dick Whittington and His Cat presented by The Merrymakers at the Carlton Theatre, Johannesburg in February.

1916: Dick Whittington and His Wonderful Cat presented by the Leonard Rayne Company at the Standard Theatre, Johannesburg in January, and at Opera House, Cape Town and Theatre Royal, Durban in February, arranged, designed and produced by Lago Clifford.

1917: Whittington and His Cat, or Harlequin Lord Mayor of London (Blanchard) produced by Dan Thomas at His Majesty’s Theatre in Johannesburg, with Horace Green. (Greyventein lists the production as written and produced by Dan Thomas under the title Dick Whittington and His Cat.)

1918: The production by Dan Thomas also presented at the Theatre Royal, Durban (February) and at the Opera House, Cape Town (April).

1946: Dick Whittington (Tansley) performed by the Ashley Street Primary School at Cape Town's City Hall, produced by Freda Druker and Cornelia Conradie, June 1946, with Basil Leach, George Veenendal, Bernard Hess, Yusuf Jakoet, Johaar Mosaval.

1952: Dick Whittington (Tansley) produced by ACT, directed by Frank Rogaly in 1952. The visiting British actor Terry-Thomas (1911–1990)[2] starred in the show as "Honourable Idle Jack"[3].

1972: Presented at the Port Elizabeth Opera House by PEMADS. Webster Booth produced and conducted, while Anne Ziegler played Principal Boy.

1977: Adaptation by John Crocker and Eric Gilder presented by St Stephen's Pinelands Repertory Society in St Stephen's Hall, directed by Nan Cunningham.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Whittington_and_His_Cat

D.C. Boonzaier. 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1923. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1928. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel I: 1652-1855. Pretoria: J.H. de Bussy. [4]: pp.

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: p.380.

Trek, 10(26):22, 1946.

Theatre programme (ACT production) held by NELM: [Collection: FARMER, Anthony]: 2007. 18. 13. 1417.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry-Thomas#Early_post-war_work:_1946%E2%80%931955

https://websterboothanneziegler.wordpress.com/2019/12/16/webster-booth-and-anne-ziegler-theatre-in-south-africa-1956-1973/

Greyvenstein, Walter 1988. The history and development of children's theatre in English in South Africa. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Johannesburg: Rand Afrikaans University.

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