The Wraith of Table Mountain

The Wraith of Table Mountain is a domestic drama in three acts by "A Gentleman of the Cape".

The original text

Apparently a rather contrived and illogical musical fantasy about two girls, Esseline and Amelia, and their three suitors, involving ethereal spirits, and other interventions on Table Mountain, to which Esseline flees when forced by her mother to marry a certain suitor. (While no text has been traced, F.C.L. Bosman, 1980, pp.217-8, provides quite a long Afrikaans summary of the convoluted plot.) The play was not popular with critics and had only three performances.

Bosman also suggests (pp. 216, 533) the play was probably the work of the local amateur and impresario I.R. Taylor.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1866: Performed for the first time (and attributed to "a Gentleman of the Cape") by the Le Roy-Duret Company in the Harrington Street Theatre on 13 August, with the "Interesting Comic Ballet Pantomime" called The Demon of the Forest, or Cassander a Cooper (Anon).

1866: Performed by the Le Roy-Duret Company in the Harrington Street Theatre on 15 and 16 August, with Where's Your Wife (Bridgeman) and a "Highland Fling" performed by Mr Luin.