The Octoroon, or Life in Louisiana

The Octoroon, or Life in Louisiana is a melodrama by Dion Boucicault (1820-1890)[1].

Popularly referred to simply as The Octoroon.

The original text

Boucicault's melodrama about the love between a white man and an octoroon girl (i.e. a girl of one-eighth African descent) was a stage adaptation of the novel The Quadroon, or A Lover's Adventures in Louisiana (1856) by Thomas Mayne Reid (1818-1883)[2], about the residents of a Louisiana plantation called Terrebonne.

The play was first staged in 1859 at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City, and became extremely popular, running continuously for years, and performed by seven road companies. It was considered second in popularity only to the varuious adaptations of Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852-3). The novel and the play sparked debates about the abolition of slavery, and in the latter case about the role of theatre in politics.

According to Boucicault, he had to change the ending of the play when it was produced in England, giving it a happy ending. Thereafter both versions were performed. However, that assertion has since been debated and his motives questioned. (See for example the article "Boucicault's misdirections: Race, transatlantic theatre and social position in The Octoroon" in the journal Atlantic Studies, Volume 6, 2009.)

The text published in London by John Dicks and by De Witt Publishing House, New York, in 1859.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1866: Performed as The Octoroon, or Life in Louisiana in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, on 21 and 23 May by the Le Roy and Duret Company.

1866: Performed in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, on 24 May by the Le Roy and Duret Company, with Bachelor's Buttons (Stirling), as a "complimentary Testimonial to the favourite artiste Mme. Duret by her Admirers".

1867: Performed by "Le Roy's Original Company" in the Theatre Royal, Harrington Street, Cape Town on 11 and 14 February, with An April Fool (Halliday and Brough).

1867: Performed by the Le Roy-Duret Company in the Harrington Street Theatre, Cape Town, on 16 February, with Mrs Green's Snug Little Business (Cheltnam) as afterpiece.

1868: Act 3 of the play performed in the old Oddfellows Hall Cape Town by the Le Roy and Duret Company on 14 May along with The Lady and the Devil (Clarence) and A Comical Countess (Brough)

1875: Performed as The Octoroon by the company of Disney Roebuck on 29 and 30 March in the Bijou Theatre, Cape Town.

1875: Performed by the company of Disney Roebuck on 9 June in the Bijou Theatre, Cape Town.

1876: Performed by the company of Disney Roebuck on 6 and 8 May, as the opening production of his new Theatre Royal, in Burg Street, Cape Town.

1876: Performed by the company of Disney Roebuck on 4 August in the Theatre Royal, Burg Street, Cape Town.

1878: Performed by the company of Disney Roebuck on 23 March in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, with Love in All Corners (Fagan/Ayton).

1884-5: Performed by the Henry Harper Company in the new Theatre Royal, Cape Town, as part of Henry Harper's first season as lessee and manager of the venue.

1914 - Performed at the Palladium Theatre, Johannesburg, opening on 5 October 1914. Produced by Edward Vincent, the cast included Ethel Bracewell, Stephen Scanlan, Austin Milroy, Shelagh Conway, Florence Creagh, Frank Lynne, Dick Cruikshanks, Herbert Lewis, Cecil De Lee and Martha Rowson.

Sources

Facsimile/transcript version of The Quadroon, in Louisiana Anthology/Anthologie Louisianaise (edited by Bruce R. Magee and Stephen Payne)[3]

Facsimile/transcript version of The Octoroon, in Louisiana Anthology/Anthologie Louisianaise (edited by Bruce R. Magee and Stephen Payne)[4]

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

Rand Daily Mail, 6 October 1914

World Drama, by Allardyce Nicoll.

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp. 204-207, 210, 221-2, 233, 294, 322-335, 339-351, 366, 380

Go to ESAT Bibliography