The Cricket on the Hearth

Charles Dickens (1812–1870)[1]

Translations and stage adaptations

It has been dramatized numerous times in various languages and was for a time more popular as a performed piece that A Christmas Carol.

Below are some of the dramatizations seen in South Africa.

Dot by Dion Boucicault (1820-1890)[2].

An adaptation of the Dickens novella by Dion Boucicault, including a number of Shakespearian characters for example, it was licensed for Ben Webster at the Adelphi on 11 April 1859, but was first produced at the Winter Garden, New York, on September 14th, 1859. The London production only took place on 14 April 1862 in the Adelphi Theatre.

Sometimes found with the title Dot, or The Cricket on the Hearth.

Performance history in South Africa

1861: Performed as The Cricket on the Hearth in the Theatre Royal by Sefton Parry and company, on 3 June. This uncredited text may have been Boucicault's recently written version.

1875: Performed as Dot, or The Cricket on the Hearth (and credited to Boucicault) in the Bijou Theatre, Cape Town by Captain Disney Roebuck's company on 9 April, with Aunt Charlotte's Maid (Morton)

Sources

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

http://www.victorianweb.org/mt/boucicault/pva231.html

https://www.nextory.se/bok/the-cricket-on-the-hearth-charles-dickens/9789176053881

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp. 97, 323, 340, 363-4.

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