The Midnight Wedding

The Midnight Wedding is a play by Walter Howard (1866-1922)[1]

The original text

Set in the fictitious European country of "Savonia", it is an action packed play that tells of the love of "Paul Valmar" and "Princess Astrea".

It opened in England at the Junction Theatre, Manchester, on 30 October, 1905, The play was first performed in Australia in 1906 and was enormously popular.

Translations and adaptations

Adapted as an silent film called Midnight Wedding in 1912 by the Australian company Spencer's Pictures, directed by Raymond Longford [2] and again in 1914 by the British & Colonial Kinematograph Company, directed by Ernest G. Batley[3], but now called The Midnight Wedding.

Performance history in South Africa

1911: Performed in February by the Alfred Paumier and his company in the Cape Town Opera House, with Paumier as "Paul Valmar". (Bosman lists the author as "W. Howards")

Sources

Allardyce Nicoll. 2009. English Drama, 1900-1930: The Beginnings of the Modern Period (Volume 2), Cambridge University Press, Google E-book[4]

Rhoda-Gale Pollack. 2016. Plays, playwrights and theatre productions related to WWI--1914-1918 as well as 1919-1934, A blog[5]

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.435

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