Her Second Time on Earth

Her Second Time on Earth is a play by Walter Melville (1875–1937)[1]

The original text

One of the so-called "Bad Women Dramas" by Frederick Melville and Walter Melville, i.e. plays with a strong moral theme, very much suited to the tastes of the day, the melodramatic work tells of the sensational story of the beautiful, merciless and hard-drinking seducer and murderess Dora Grey.

First performed on 9 October 1902 in the Standard Theatre, London and later played at the Adelphi from 16 May to 6 June, 1903. .

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1903: Performed by the Leonard Rayne company in the Opera House, Cape Town, as part of a season that extended from on 10 August till 23 October. Other plays in the company's repertoire were A Message from Mars, The Worst Woman in London (W. Melville), The Shaughraun (Boucicault).

Sources

The Melville Collection The University of Kent Library Special Collections and Archives [2]

Elaine Aston and Ian Clarke. 1996. "The Dangerous Woman of Melvillean Drama" in New Theatre Quarterly 45: Volume 12, Part 1. Cambridge University Press[3].

Robert Leach. 2018. An Illustrated History of British Theatre and Performance: Volume Two - "From the Industrial Revolution to the Digital Age". Routledge.[4]

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 1932. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.417

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