Harlequin Skeleton

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Harlequin Skeleton is a pantomime by an anonymous author/creator.

Also found as Harlequin Skeleton, or Trick upon Trick, Harlequin Skeleton, or the Miller, Harlequin the Skeleton and Harlequin Transformed into a Skeleton.

The original text

Basically a comic performance based on Harlequin in a skeleton suit, it is apparently is one of the oldest Harlequinades or pantomimes on record, with English performances being recorded in the England and the USA as early as the 1750s.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1864: Apparently performed as Harlequin Transformed into a Skeleton in the Circus Building, Cape Town, by the Feroni Family (or a company/performers working with them).

Sources

Allardyce Nicoll. 1975. A History of English Drama 1660-1900: Late 19th Century Drama 1850-1900 Cambridge University Press: p.401[1]

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: p.188

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