Le Conteur, ou Les Deux Postes

Le Conteur, ou Les Deux Postes is a three act French play by Louis-Benoît Picard (1769-1828)[1].

The original text

The play was first performed at the Théâtre de la République in Paris in 1794 and published by Maradan in 1794 or 1795.

Translations and adaptations

The French original was adapted in English as We Fly by Night, or Long Stories, a "Musical Entertainment in Two Acts" by "Arthur Griffinhoof", the pseudonym of George Colman Jr (1762-1836)[2]. The English text is also referred to simply as We Fly by Night.

We Fly by Night, or Long Stories was first performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden on January 28, 1806, with music by Michael Kelly, and published by T. Woodfall and George Dobbin & Murphy, in the same year. Also Published by D. Longworth, at the Dramatic Repository, Shakspeare-Gallery, New York in 1815.

Performance history in South Africa

1826: Performed in Cape Town on 20 September as We Fly by Night by the Garrison Amateur Company in The Cape Town Theatre, with A Cure for the Heartache (Morton). Two quite comprehensive reviews of the production appeared in the The Commercial Advertiser and the South African Chronicle and Mercantile Advertiser on 26 September (though, interestingly, the names of performers are not mentioned in either, only the names of characters.)