The Serf, or Love Levels All

The Serf, or Love Levels All is a play in three acts by Tom Taylor (1817-1880)[1]

The original text

A melodrama about a French serf, training as an artist in Russia, who falls in love with an aristocratic lady. First performed at the Olympic Theatre, London, on 30 June 1865, and was published by Thomas Hailes Lacy in London.

Translations and adaptations

A novel also called The Serf, or Love levels All! was written by Henry Llewellyn Williams , based on Taylor's play. of that name by Tom

Performance history in South Africa

1877: Performed as The Serf, or Love Levels All in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, on 28 November by the Disney Roebuck company, as part of a "Grand Military Night", also featuring the orchestra of the Connaught Rangers (88th Regiment)

1877: Performed as The Serf, or Love Levels All in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, on 29 November by the Disney Roebuck company, this time accompanied by A Kiss in the Dark (Buckstone).

Sources

Carolyn Williams (ed.) 2018. The Cambridge Companion to English MelodramaCaibridge University Press: pp. 102-3[2]

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

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.363

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