Trilby

Trilby is a play by Paul M. Potter (1853-1921)[1]

The original text

Based on Trilby, the popular novel by George du Maurier ()[], which is set in Paris and tells the interlinked stories of three artists (two English and one Scottish), Trilby O'Ferrall, a half-Irish girl working in Paris as an artists' model and laundress, and Svengali, a memorable rogue, masterful musician and hypnotist. The novel was first published serially in Harper's Monthly from January to August 1894 and appeared in book form on 8 September 1895.

The novel was adapted as a play in * acts by Paul M. Potter , first produced in the United States in March 1895 where the role of "Svengali" was created by American actor Wilton Lackaye at the Boston Museum. It then opened in London's Haymarket Theatre in October 1895, directed, produced by and starring Herbert Beerbohm Tree as "Svengali".

Translations and adaptations

The novel has been adapted to film numerous times, beginning with Trilby (1914), a British silent film version of the play, starring Viva Birkett and Herbert Beerbohm Tree, directed by Harold M. Shaw

Performance history in South Africa

1902-3: Performed by Leonard Rayne and company at the Opera House, Cape Town, under the auspices of the Mouillot-De Jong Company, as part of a season of musical comedy and light opera beginning in December of 1902 and running into 1903.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilby_(play)

D.C. Boonzaier. 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1923. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.

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