The Snow Queen
The Snow Queen is an original fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen [1].
Contents
The original text
Translations and adaptations
A dramatized version of The Snow Queen was written by English actor Michael Martin-Harvey, with music by English composer Margaret More in the 1940s.
Adapted for the stage by Cecil Jubber.
Ikumkanikazi yeKhephu, a Xhosa-adaptation staged by Dimpho di Kopane, commissioned by the Hans Christian Andersen Foundation in Denmark to celebrate the author’s bicentenary in 2007.
Performance history in South Africa
Late 1940s: The Martin-Harvey and More text and music were commissioned and performed several times as Christmas entertainment in Johannesburg under the direction of Myrrha Bantock.
1953: Presented by the University of Cape Town's Speech and Drama Department at the Little Theatre in December, directed by Gretel Mills.
1965: Presented by the Arts Theatre Club at the Guild Theatre, directed by Elaine Shaw.
2004: Dimpho di Kopane presented its Season South Africa from October 27 to December 5 in the synod hall of the Cathedral of St John the Divine in Amsterdam Avenue, Manhattan. They presented four works in repertory: The Mysteries – Yiimimangaliso, U-Carmen, The Beggar's Opera and Ikumkanikazi yeKhephu.
Sources
Inskip, 1972. p.141.
Arts Theatre Club archive held by George Mountjoy.
Ivan Meredith. 2006. 'Opera in South Africa during the first democratic decade'. Unpublished Masters thesis. University of Cape Town.
Paul Boekkooi. 2006. 'uCarmen eAfrika'. Mail & Guardian. 10 August 2006.
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