The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden

The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden is a one-act play by Thornton Wilder (1897–1975).

Sometimes simply billed as The Happy Journey.

The original text

Almost the entire play takes place during an automobile journey from Newark to Camden, New Jersey by a family on their way to visit a married daughter.

The first production was by the Yale Dramatic Association and the Vassar College Philalethis at the Yale University theater in New Haven, Connecticut on November 25, 1931. It was first published in The Long Christmas Dinner and Other Plays in One Act (New York: Coward-McCann, 1931).

Published in South Africa in the collection Spotlight: A Collection of One-act Plays for Active Participation, compiled by Betty Hugo and published by De-Jager Haum in 1989.

Translations and adaptations

Translated into Afrikaans as Die Voorspoedige Reis na Trenton en Camden (translator unknown) and produced by K.A.T. as one of their FATSA Festival entries in Cape Town in February and March 1952. The play was directed by Christie van der Merwe.

Translated into Afrikaans as Kom Ry Saam ("Come ride along") by Iris Roux.

Performance history in South Africa

1946: Presented as The Happy Journey to Camden by the University of Cape Town Speech and Drama Department, produced by Nancy Body. Little Theatre, Sept 1946. Featuring Leonard Schach, Sonia Lipman and Winifred Robertson.

1952: Performed in Afrikaans as Die Voorspoedige Reis na Trenton en Camden (translator unknown) by K.A.T. as one of their FATSA Festival entries in Cape Town in February and March. The play was directed by Christie van der Merwe.

1967: Presented by CAPAB's Theatre-go-round directed by Elliot Playfair in 1967 as The Happy Journey in a double bill with The Garden at the Threshold.

1967: Performed in Afrikaans as Kom Ry Saam (Iris Roux's translation?) by the students of the drama department of the Potchefstroom Universiteit vir Christelike Hoër Onderwys, in a double bill with Bartho Smit's Moeder Hanna.