The Four Sisters

The Four Sisters is an original farce in one act by William Bayle Bernard (1807-1875)[1]

In a strange error, the index to Bosman (1980, p. 512) refers to the play as The Four Sailors, or Woman's Worth and Women's Wrongs, though this strange title does not appear in the text of Bosman's book itself, where it is consistently referred to as The Four Sisters (and on one occasion, The Four Sisters, or Woman's Worth and Women's Wrongs).

The original text

First performed as The Four Sisters on May 3, 1832 in The Strand Theatre, London, and published by Thomas Hailes Lacy in the same year.

1866: Performed, and apparently billed as The Four Sisters, or Woman's Worth and Women's Wrongs, in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, by the Le Roy-Duret Company on 22 March, with The Creole (Brooks). Madame Duret played the lead, using her outstanding skill for transformation to perform all four the sisters apparently.

1866: Performed as The Four Sisters in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, by the Le Roy-Duret Company on 30 July, with The Roll of the Drum (Wilks).

1867: Performed as The Four Sisters in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, by the Madame Duret and the Le Roy-Duret Company on 15 July, with A Match in the Dark (Dance) and Was I to Blame? (Rodwell).

1867: Performed as The Four Sisters in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, by the Le Roy-Duret Company on 7 October, with Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare) and a "Fancy Dance" by Miss Clara.