The Gates of Bondage

The Gates of Bondage is a play in five acts by Maud Williamson ()[]

The original text

A dramatisation of the novel The Deemster ("the judge") by Hall Caine (1853-1931)[1], set in the Isle of Man and his first great success. The plot revolves around the reckless actions of Dan Mylrea and the exile and atonement that follow. Caine himself twice adapted the book for the stage. The first time as Ben-my-Chree ("Girl of my heart" in Manx) in association with the actor Wilson Barrett, who was to play the lead role of Dan, . The play was entitled Ben-my-Chree (“Girl of my heart" in Manx); Later he fell out with Barrett, so wrote a new version called The Bishop's Son, which was taken on tour in 1910, including a performance in Douglas, the capital of the Isle of Man, on 15 August. Filmed as The Deemster in the United States by the Arrow Film Corporation, starring Hall Caine.

The Gates of Bondage is another adaption of the work, this one done by actress Maud Williamson in the late 1890s, as a vehicle for herself and fellow actor Alfred Woods and was thereafter performed to great success throughout the British Empire and America by the Woods-Williamson Company. It was particularly popular in Australia apparently. Less so in Cape Town, according to D.C. Boonzaier (1923).

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1907: Performed in Cape Town by the visiting Woods-Williamson Company during the first part of the year, as part of a short season at the Opera House, under the auspices of the Wheeler Brothers. The season also included The Garden of Lies (Grundy), The King's Mistress (Anon.) and In the Palace of the King (Stoddard). The season was not well received by the Cape Town public.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall_Caine#Isle_of_Man

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

Review of a production of the play by the Woods-Williamson Company in Auckland, New Zealand, in New Zealand Heraldof 2 September, 1898. Papers Past [2]

Review of an Australian production of the play by the Woods-Williamson Company in the Theatre Royal, Hobart,Tasmania, on page 2 of The Mercury of July 26, 1900, Trove [3]

Review of an Australian production of the play by the Woods-Williamson Company in the Royal Princess's Theatre Bendigo, Victoria, on page 7 of the Bendigo Advertiser of 17 April, 1911. Trove [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.426-427

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