Jocrisse-maître et Jocrisse-valet

Jocrisse-maître et Jocrisse-valet is a French one act comedy by Charles Augustin Sewrin (1771-1853)[1].

The original text

First produced at the Théâtre des Variétés-Panoramas, Paris, on 29 October, 1810 and published by Masson in 1810.

Translations and adaptations

Translated and adapted into English as a one act "Ballad Farce" called The Two Gregories, or "Where Did the Money Come From?" by Thomas Dibdin (1771–1841)[2].

First performed at the Surrey Theatre, London, in 1821. Published for the Proprietor, at Roach's Old Established Library, 1821.

Produced in South Africa in this English adaptation.

South African productions

1833: Performed in English at the African Theatre in Hope Street, Cape Town by the All the World's a Stage on 3 August, (under the slightly inaccurate title of The Two Gregorys, or Where Does the Money Come From?) with The Inchcape Bell, or The Dumb Sailor Boy (Fitzball) and a vaudeville act on the "slack rope" by Monsieur Dupree.

1835: Performed in English as The Two Gregories in The Amateur Theatre, Cape Town on 11 March by the Private Amateur Company, with A Cure for the Heartache (Morton). The evening was "(F)or the benefit of the Sufferers of the Caffer Irruption".

1867: Performed in English as The Two Gregories by the Le Roy-Duret Company in the Harrington Street Theatre, Cape Town, on 30 September, with Our Wife (),

1875: Performed by Disney Roebuck and his company as The Two Gregories, or Where Did the Money Come From? in the Bijou Theatre, Cape Town, on 6 March, with Lady Audley's Secret (Hazlewood).

1884: Performed in English as The Two Gregories in the Theatre Royal, Burg Street, Cape Town by the Henry Harper company on 18 July. Performers included Edward Colman, J. Fox Turner, B. Glanville, Chas. S. Lester, Miss Moxon, and Lilian Francis, with sets by William Thorne and stage management by Mr Kelly. It was performed as an afterpiece to Faces in the Fire (Bayard & Laurencin/Buckingham) and a "Grand Inaugural March" by the musical director William Ramsden. The theatre was leased by Henry Harper and managed by Charles Wilstone. This evening constituted the opening production in the newly reconstructed Theatre Royal, built to replace the one destroyed by fire in July 1883.

Sources

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewrin

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jocrisse

Facsimile version of the 1810 edition of Jocrisse-maître et Jocrisse-valet, Google E-Book[3]

Facsimile version of the 1821 edition of The Two Gregories, or "Where Did the Money Come From?", Google E-Book[4]

F.C.L. Bosman, 1928. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel I: 1652-1855. Pretoria: J.H. de Bussy. [5]: pp. 206, 227, 376

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.230, 322, 329, 377

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