Time Tries All!

Time Tries All! is a domestic comedy in two acts by John Courtney (1804–1865)[1]

The original text

First performed at the Royal Olympic Theatre, London on 4 September 1848, it attained great success around England, the colonies and in America between the 1850s and the 1880s.

The text was published by Thomas Hailes Lacy, 1848.

The original text

Translations and adaptations

A version was done in South Africa under the title Time Tries All, or The Bashful Lover. This is the Courtney play and not the be confused with The Bashful Lover[2], the 1636 tragicomedy by Philip Massinger (1583–1640)[3]

Performance history in South Africa

1860: Performed as Time Tries All, or The Bashful Lover on Monday, the 20th September on July 30 and August 1, by the Band of Amateurs of the North Lincolnshire Regiment of Foot the Eastern Cape border. The cast consisted of J. M. M'Kechnie (Mr Leeson), F. Girton (Matthew Bates), W. Dansie (Hon. Augustus Collander Yawn), J. Mann (Charles Clinton), T. Patterson (John), J. Grennan (Laura Leeson), A. Vogado (Fanny Fact). Also performed was The Dead Shot (Buckstone). (See the entry on the North Lincolnshire Regiment of Foot for contemporaneous commentary on the performance.)

1861: Performed by Sefton Parry and his company in the Theatre Royal, Harrington Street, Cape Town, on 22 July, as afterpiece to Little Bo-Peep, or Harlequin and the Little Girl who Lost her Sheep

1864: Performed as Time Tries All by Thomas Brazier, Mrs Brazier and local amateurs in the Theatre Royal on 12 December, as a farewell for the Braziers, who were leaving for Port Elizabeth. The evening also featured a performance of The Irish Post (Planché) and a farewell speech by Brazier.

1870: Performed in the Institute Assembly Hall, Cape Town, by The Young Men's Institute and Club Dramatic Company on 24 and 28 May, with Found in a Four-Wheeler (Williams).