Leah Kleschna

Leah Kleschna is a drama in five acts by C.M.S. McLellan (Charles Morton Stewart McLellan, 1865–1916)[1]

The original text

The play tells of the daughter of a jewel thief, raised as a thief herself, who on meeting Paul Sylvaine, the owner of the house her father had sent her to rob, is persuaded to reconsider her life and return the jewels she had stolen, abandon her father and leave Paris to return to the farm where she had been raised. The play ends when, a few years later, Sylvaine and Leah are reunited.

First produced at the Manhattan Theatre on December 12, 1904, by by Minnie Maddern Fiske, Harrison Grey Fiske and the Manhattan Company to a run of 131 performances, followed by an additional 24 performances in September. It opened at the New Theatre, London on May 2, 1905.

Translations and adaptations

Made into a silent film in 1913 by the Famous Players Film Company, directed by J. Searle Dawley.

Performance history in South Africa

1905: Produced in the Opera House, Cape Town , in September by William Haviland for the De Jong and Haviland Company

Sources

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._M._S._McLellan

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: p.423

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