Taste

There are two works by this title performed in South Africa:

Taste a play in two acts by Samuel Foote (1720–1777)[1].

The original text

A satire on the 18th century growth in the art and antiquities market, with a focus on aristocratic collectors. First produced in London in 1752, at the Drury Lane theatre.

Performance history in South Africa

1800: Apparently first produced in South Africa by Dr Somers and Officers from the Garrison (in a venue referred to as Sea-line by Mrs Somers) in the the Military Hospital, Cape Town in May 1800. According to Lady Anne Barnard (cited in F.C.L. Bosman, 1928[2]: p. 61) the play's title was given as "Teasle" and it featured Dr Somers (given as "Lady Bentweazle" instead of "Pentweazel"), Major Glegg ("Carmine"), Colonel Barlow ("Puff"). This performance was the spark that inspired Sir George Yonge to create The African Theatre. It also contained what is claimed by Bosman (citing P.W. Laidler's Annals of the Cape Stage, p. 11) to possibly be one of the earliest pieces of local writing for the theatre in Mrs Somers's prologue to the performance, even though the text has been lost.

1807: Performed (ostensibly as a one-act version) at the Garrison Theatre in Cape Town on the 20th of June, as an afterpiece to Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. The company included Captain Frazer, Mr Morgan and Captain Collins and the production was managed by Mr Morgan, who also read a prologue written for the occasion by Captain Frazer, who in turn sang a song he had written (in character as "Lady Pentweazle" in Taste), while Captain Collins read an epilogue he had written. According to F.C.L. Bosman (1928: p. 70)[3] these pieces are the oldest extant remnants of local theatrical writing (though not, he emphasizes, the earliest piece of written text or performance text, since there are records of earlier indigenous performances, prologues and even texts - e.g. Mrs Somers's prologue to the first performance of Taste in 1800).

1808: Performed in The African Theatre by the Garrison Players on 2 July 1808, as afterpiece to The Gamester (Moore).

Sources

F.C.L. Bosman, 1928. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel I: 1652-1855. Pretoria: J.H. de Bussy. [4]: pp. 61-2, 70-71, 76,

Jill Fletcher. 1994. The Story of Theatre in South Africa: A Guide to its History from 1780-1930. Cape Town: Vlaeberg: p. 22

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Foote

Go to the ESAT Bibliography

Taste a short story by Roald Dahl

The original text

A tale about a bet on a wine-tasting and sweet vengeance. First published in the New Yorker (December 8, 1951) and in the collection of Dahl stories called Someone Like You (Alfred Knopf, 1953)

Translations and adaptations

Translated into Afrikaans, localised in the Western Cape and adapted for the stage as a one-act play called Proe by a student, Carel Jooste, in 1978.

The story was also turned into an episode called Taste in Tales of the Unexpected (1980) and into a one-act opera called A Question of Taste by William Schuman (1989).

Performance history in South Africa

1978: Performed as Proe in the Libertas-teater in Stellenbosch on 13 March as part of the USAT Dramafees by students of the residences Hippocrates and Huis Francie van Zyl at the University of Stellenbosch. Directed by Carel Jooste, with Carel Jooste, Willem Myburgh, Maria Pienaar, Hannelie Pienaar and Brenda Bakkes. Stage manager Brenda Bakkes. .

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taste_(short_story)

https://www.roalddahlfans.com/dahls-work/short-stories/taste/

Copy of the 1978 USAT Dramafees programme (held 11-21 March in the Libertas-teater in Stellenbosch).

Go to ESAT Bibliography

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