Nineteenth Century

1800AD

SIR GEORGE YONGE LAUNCHES CAPE TOWN GAZETTE AND KAAPSCHE STADS COURANT AND “THE SOCIETY FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF AGRICULTURE, ARTS AND SCIENCES”.

DR SOMERS UTILIZES THE BARRACKS THEATRE, OPENING WITH "TASTE BY FOOTE". A PETITION FOR A SUBSCRIPTION PUBLIC THEATRE FROM TOWNSPEOPLE (DUTCH AND ENGLISH). THE AFRICAN THEATRE PLANNED AND BUILDING COMMENCES.

1801AD

SIR GEORGE YONGE RECALLED TO ENGLAND TO FACE CHARGES.

THE AFRICAN THEATRE OPENS IN CAPE TOWN WITH A PRODUCTION OF "HENRY IV". LADY ANNE BARNARD WRITES “FIRST REVIEW” IN HER LETTERS. .

1802AD

End of third border war

1803AD

British occupy Delhi, but retain puppet Mughal emperors.

CAPE REVERTS TO DUTCH RULE (BATAVIAN PERIOD) WITH DE MIST AS COMMISIONER GENERAL AND JANSSENS AS GOVERNOR.

“TOT NUT VAN’T ALGEMEEN”, AN ARTS AND SCIENCES SOCIETY FOUNDED IN CAPE TOWN.

"DIE PAPEGAY" BY KOTZEBUE PERFORMED BY DUTCH AMATEURS IN CAPE TOWN, AND VOLTAIRE’S "ZAIRE" ALSO PERFORMED. FIRST APPEARANCES BY CHARLES VILLET.

1804AD

PIT ADDED TO THE AFRICAN THEATRE.

1805AD

Mohammed Ali becomes undisputed ruler of Egypt.

1806AD

Kleist’s "The Broken Jug".

GENERAL JANSSENS CAPITULATES TO BRITISH , WHO RE-OCCUPY THE CAPE.

CHARLES BONIFACE ARRIVES IN CAPE TOWN.

1807 AD

CAPTAIN FRAZER ARRIVES IN THE CAPE WITH THE OCCUPYING FORCES AND REVITALIZES THE GARRISON THEATRICALS. “ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE” FOUNDED BY FRAZER AND CO. AND PERFORM SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER IN THE AFRICAN THEATRE. THE “FRENCH THEATRE” ERECTED IN J.H.BERG’S STORE IN BERG STREET.

1808AD

DUTCH/FRENCH “HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE” FOUNDED UNDER BONIFACE’S LEADERSHIP. (?)

1809 AD

“TOT NUT EN VERMAAK” FOUNDED IN CAPE TOWN.

1811 AD

First appearance of "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen.

1813 AD

HET BELEG EN NAMEN VAN TROYEN A BALLET-PANTOMIME BY C.E. BONIFACE PRODUCED AT THE AFRICAN THEATRE.

1814 AD

THOMAS SHERIDAN, SON OF THE PLAYWRIGHT, ARRIVES IN CAPE TOWN AS COLONIAL TREASURER. SIR CHARLES SOMERSET APPOINTED GOVERNOR.

1815AD

Gas installed in Covent Garden. WILD OATS PERFORMED IN CAPE TOWN AND SIMON’S TOWN, WITH AN OCCASIONAL ADDRESS WRITTEN AND SPOKEN BY THOMAS SHERIDAN.

1818 AD

J.Suasso de Lima arrives in Cape Town.

PERFORMERS FROM THE ROYAL THEATRE LIVERPOOL ARRIVE AND PERFORM TOBIN’S THE HONEYMOON AT AFRICAN THEATRE, ASSISTED BY LOCAL AMATEURS, AS THEIR FIRST SHOW OF A 10 PLAY SEASON.

1820AD

Russian serf Shchepkin freed to lead an acting troupe (Became mentor for Stanislavski). Kean and Macready active in London.

THE FIRST 1820 SETTLERS FROM ENGLAND ARRIVE IN DELAGOA BAY AND ARE SETTLED ON FARMS ON THE EASTERN BORDER.

1823 AD

DE DOLZINNIGE (L’ENRAGE) BY BONIFACE, TR. BY DE LIMA, PRODUCED IN CAPE TOWN.

1825 AD

DE BURGER EDELMAN (LE BOURGEOIS GENTILHOMME BY MOLIÉRE, TR BY BONIFACE) PERFORMED IN CAPE TOWN. WITH A CHOIR AND TURKISH BALLET!

1826 AD

DE LIMA FOUNDS DE VERZAMELAAR, A NEWSPAPER.

1830AD

Madame Vestris becomes manager of the Olympic Theatre. Hugo’s Hernani sparks riots in Paris.

1832AD

Dunlap’s History of the American Theatre published.

LOVEDALE MISSION SCHOOL FOUNDED FOR AFRICANS.

BONIFACE’S DE NIEUWE RIDDERORDE OF DE TEMPERANTISTEN PUBLISHED. THE "NEW BALLET DANCE" JACK AT THE CAPE, OR ALL ALIVE AMONG THE HOTTENTOTS! PRESENTED IN CAPE TOWN.

1835AD

Buchner’s Danton’s Tod published.

BONIFACE WRITES KOCKINCOZ OR THE PETTIFOGGING LAWYER'S PLOT.

1836AD

Gogol’s The Government Inspector. American Edwin Forrester performs in London.

1840 AD

BONIFACE FOUNDS DE NATALIER EN PIETERMARITZBURGSCHE TROUWE AANTEKENAAR, A NEWSPAPER IN PIETERMARITZBURG.

1843AD

Theatres Act rescinds power of the Patent Theatres. Macready’s first tour of the USA.

1849AD

Scribe’s Adrienne Lecouvreur.

1851AD

Great Exhibition opens in the Crystal Palace, London. Napoleon III seizes power in France.

Charles Kean manages the Princess theatre. Ibsen appointed at the Bergen Theatre. Labiche’s "The Italian Straw Hat".

1852AD

Second Empire begins in France.

Dumas fils’s "La Dame aux Cammelias"

1853AD

Exhibition of Zulu Kafirs opens in London.

THE LYCEUM THEATRE OPENS IN PORT ELIZABETH.

1854AD

Start of the Crimean War.

Dramatic Copyright law amended.

1855AD

GREY COLLEGE FOUNDED IN BLOEMFONTEIN, ORANGE FREE STATE AS A SCHOOL FOR “YOUNG GENTLEMEN” . ADAMS MISSION SCHOOL FOUNDED FOR AFRICANS.

SEFTON PARRY FIRST ARRIVES IN CAPE TOWN, DOES PERFORMANCES WITH AMATEURS.

1856AD

Bessemer develops his steel process.

1857AD

Anglo-French war agains China ends. Pasteur begins his studies of fermentation. Free libraries open in England and Gerrmany. Flaubert’s "Madame Bovary". John Stuart Mill’s "On Liberty".

SEFTON PARRY RETURNS TO CAPE TOWN WITH PROFESSIONALS AND BUILDS A WOODEN THEATRE IN HARRINGTON STREET.

1858AD

BATTLE OF VEGKOP BETWEEN THE BURGERS OF THE ORANGE FREE STATE AND THE BASUTU.

ARRIVAL OF MR J.E.H. ENGLISH, A CELEBRATED COMIC VOCALIST, WHO OPENED A MUSIC HALL.

A REDERYKERSKAMER CALLED THESPIS ACTIVE IN PAARL.

1859AD

Darwin’s "Origin of the Species".

Boucicault’s "The Octoroon"

1860AD

Kingdom of Italy established.

Victor Hugo’s "Les Misrables".

THE THEATRE ROYAL, CAPE TOWN OPENED BY PARRY.

1861AD

Solvay’s soda-making process simplifies textile, glass and soap industry. Napoleon III attacks Mexico.

1862AD

Prince Alfred’s Theatre in use by King William’s Town Dramatic Club. A rederykerskamer Aurora active in Paarl. Bismark becomes Minister-President in Prussia.

1863AD

Manet’s Déjeuner sur l’herbe. 1 April 1863 - First Tramway Company in Cape Town commences operations, with a horse-drawn service running on rails from the city to Green Point

1864AD

Siemens & Martin’s open hearth prosess for steel. Garrison Theatre opens in Pietermaritzburg. Prussia declares war on Schleswig-Holstein.

1865AD

Pres. Lincoln assassinated in Ford’s Theatre, Washington. Lister introduces atiseptic surgery. T.W.Robertson’s Society The Dramatic Hall opens in Pietermaritzburg. Door Yver Bloeit de Kunst resuscitated by J.C. Combrink, and lasts till 1910.

1866AD

Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. Dynamite patented by Nobel. First transatlantic cable laid. Chronegk joins the Meininger Co. as stage director. The rederykerskamer Aurora founded in Cape Town.

1867AD

Siemens introduces dynamo. Marx’s Das Kapital, vol 1. Melt Brink's first performance for Aurora.

1868AD

Willem Nel (a local Dutch play H.W. Teengs) performed in Paarl by Aurora.

1869AD

Social Democratic Working Men’s Party founded in Germany. Suez Canal opened. Sarah Bernhardt in Le Passant Het Origineele Testament (Melt Brink's first play) performed by Aurora.

1870AD

Start of Franco-Prussian war.

1871AD

Stanley finds Livingstone in Africa. Zola’s Les Rougon-Macquart. Darwin’s Descent of Man. Verdi’s Aïda. Paris Commune seeks to set up government in Paris. German Empire and Third Republic in France founded.

1873AD

Maxwell’s study of electricity and magnetism. Spencer’s Study of Sociology. Emile Zola’s Thérèse Raquin Captain Disney Roebuck arrives in Cape Town.

1874AD

Wundt’s Foundations of Physiological Psychology.

1876AD

Otto invents internal combustion engine. The new Theatre Royal opens, with Roebuck’s presentation of The Octoroon by Boucicault. Unie-Debatsvereniging founded. First edition of the Cape Times appears.

1877AD

Rodin’s first exhibition in Paris. Russo-Turkish War begins.

1878AD

Pasteur lectures on his Germ Theory in Paris. Cable communication is established between England and the Cape Congress of Berlin partitions Africa among European powers.

1879AD

Ibsen’s A Doll’s House

1880AD

Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. Pasteur identifies the Streptococcus bacteria. Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance Die Afrikaner Bond founded in the Cape Colony by “Onze Jan” Hofmeyr. Transvaal claims independence from Britain and declares itself a republic. The first Anglo-Boer war starts. Gladstone Prime Minister in Britain.

1881AD

Billy the Kid killed by Sherrif Pat Garrett. Ibsen’s Ghosts, Zola’s Le Naturalisme au théâtre. Irving and Terry stars on London stage Boers defeat British at Laing’s Nek and Majuba. The Pretoria Convention recognizes the independence of the South African Republic (ZAR). Alexander II assassinated and Alexander III becomes Tsar in Russia. The French occupy Tunis, the British occupy Egypt. The Three Emperors Alliance formed by Germany, Austria and Russia.

1882AD

Koch isolates bacillus of tuberculosis. Married Women’s Property Act in Britain. Daimler builds first petrol engine. Josef Breuer pioneers psycho-analysis in Vienna, by using hypnosis to cure hysteria. David Belasco arrives in New York. Wagner’s Parsifal. The Savoy Theatre, built by Richard D’Oyley-Carte, is first British building with electric illumination. Exiled Chief Chetswayo of the Zulu’s is taken to see The Fair One with the Golden Locks, a Roebuck pantomime in Cape Town. Republics of Stellaland and Goosen declared in Western Transvaal.H.E Bulwer becomes Lieutenant-Governor of Natal. British occupy Egypt. Triple Alliance (Italy, Germany and Austro-Hungary) formed. France and Britain establish dual control of Suez Canal.

1883AD

Nietsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra. Orient Express begins to run between Paris and Constantinople. Ferdinand de Lesseps begins work on Panama Canal. Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Concession for a railway between Delagoa Bay and the Transvaal granted to a US firm by the Portuguese government. Paul Kruger becomes President of the ZAR. Germany begins settlement of South West Africa.

1884AD

Trade Unions legalized in France. Parsons develops the steam turbine. Charles Parsons invents the first practical steam turbine engine. Cocaine used as an aneasthetic by New York surgeon Charles Halsted, who becomes an addict. Theatre Royal Cape Town burns down. Rebuilt. J.T. Jabavu founds the weekly Imvo Zabantsundu in King William’s Town. E.C. Williams first South African finalist at Wimbledon. Marianhill Mission School founded for Africans. Germany occupies South West Africa. Chetswayo dies and is succeeded as king of the Zulus by his son Dinizulu. Lucas Meyer and other Transvaal burghers found the New Republic at Vryheid.

1885AD

Maxim invents machine gun. Pasteur administers first anti-rabies vaccine in France. The “Safety” bicycle introduced by the Rover Company in England. Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. Disney Roebuck dies after a performance of Called Back in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town. Bismark calls the Berlin Conference on Africa. Khartoum taken by the Mahdi and later recaptured by Kitchener. Congo State founded as personal possession of Belgian king Leopold II.

1886AD

Aluminium made for first time. Kipling’s Departmental Ditties. Nietsche’s Beyond Good and Evil. Coca Cola goes on sale in Atlanta Georgia. Television pioneered by Nipkov in Germany. Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London. South Africa’s first Electric Trams rund between Adderley Street and Mowbray Hill, Cape Town. Gold discovered on the Witwatersrand. Burma annexed by British. Geronimo is captured in USA and Indian Wars end. Start of May Day workers celebrations, because of the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago.

1887AD

Luscombe Searelle begins his theatrical activities The rederykerskamer called Aurora ceases its activities for the duration fo Anglo-Boer War hostilities. The Nederlandsche Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorwegmaatschappij is created to build a railway from Komatipoort to Johannesburg and Pretoria. 8 November 1887 - The Johannesburg Stock Exchange in established. Britain annexes Zululand, blocking the Transvaal’s attempts to find a route to the sea.

Strindberg writes The Father and publishes Miss Julie. André Antoine opens Théâtre Libre in Paris. First Colonial Conference in London. Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. Esperanto devised by Lazarus Zamenhof In Warsaw. Electricity introduced in Japan. Edison invents the motor driven phonograph, using wx cylinders.

Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. Esperanto devised by Lazarus Zamenhof In Warsaw. Electricity introduced in Japan. Edison invents the motor driven phonograph, using wx cylinders. . Strindberg writes The Father and publishes Miss Julie. André Antoine opens Théâtre Libre in Paris . First Colonial Conference in London.

1888AD

In Ireland Dunlop produces pneumatic tyre. In USA Kodak develops the box camera. “Jack the Ripper” makes headlines in London. Nansen crosses the ice-cap in Greenland. In Mannheim Benz motor carriages advertised for the first time. Burroughs patents his adding machine. First theatre in Johannesburg, The Globe, opens. Rhodes forms De Beers Conolidated Mines. The Wanderers Sporting Club founded in Johannesburg. The New Republic unites with the Transvaal to become the district of Vryheid. Lobengula, king of the Ndebele, accepts British protection. Reitz president of the OFS.

1889AD

Cordite patented by Abel and Dewar. First lifts installed by Otis in Demarest Building, New York. Eiffel Tower completed in Paris. Eastman produces frst roll film. A Doll’s House in England, America. Otto Brahm founds Der Freie Bühne in Berlin The President Theatre established on Church square by Karl Reck. Rhodes founds the British South Africa Co. South African Rugby Board is formed. First major boxing match in South Africa held at Eagle’s Nest, Johannesburg.

1890AD

Vincent Van Gogh commits suicide. The “Gibson Girl” created by illustrator Charles Dana Gibson. First all-steel bridge built over the Firth of Forth. First electric underground railway in London. First commercial dry-cell battery (“Ever Ready”). First tetnus antitoxin produced. Peanut Butter invented as health food.First aluminium sucepan (by Henry Avery). Herman Hollerith’s new tabulating machine is used to compute the US Census. (His firm to evolve into IBM) Tschaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty performed in St Petersburg’s Maryinsky Theatre. Transvaal and OFS conclude a treaty of mutual alliance. Bismark is dismissed.Customs tariffs introduced in France.

1891AD

Work started on Trans Siberian railway. Conan Doyle’s “Sherlock Holmes” stories first published in Strand magazine. Toulouse-Lautrec’s Montmartre music-hall posters. Basketball invented at Springfield Mass., USA. J.T.Grein founds Independent Theatre Society in England. Wedekind’s Spring Awakening The Standard Theatre opened in Johannesburg. Nyasaland becomes a British protectorate. Jameson becomes Administrator of British South Africa Co.’s territories. Triple Alliance of Germany, Italy and Austria renewed for 12 years.

1892AD

Diesel patents diesel internal combustion engine. Cross and Bevan discover viscose, makingproduction of rayon possible. Shaw’s Mrs Warren’s Profession. Hauptmann’s The Weavers First Afrikaans playlets by J.H.H. de Waal, possibly performed at Uitenhage. Railway from Cape reaches the Vaal River and the railway from Komatipoort opened. Architect Sir Herbert Baker comes to South Africa. Transvaal National Union formed by the uitlanders on the Witwatersrand. Gladstone Prime Minister for 4th time.

1893AD

Independent labour party in Britain. Tschaikovsky’s Symphonie Pathétique. World’s first open-heart surgery in Chicago. Woman’s sufferage adopted in New Zealand (first country to do so). Wall Street collapse and 4 year depression.Nansen leads an expedition to the North Pole. Benz builds his four-wheel car. The Opera House is inaugurated in Cape Town. Railway linking Cape Town and to Pretoria completed. Johannesburg cyclist Lourens Meintjies wins world title at Chicago Chicago World’s Fair. Johannesburg suburb of Parktown laid out. Natal granted self-government. Ndebele revolt against Bristish SA Co and this is crushed by Jameson, who occupies Bulawayo. Paul Kruger re-elected for 3rd time. Ghandi arrives in South Africa.

1894AD

The Dreyfus case begins in France. Kipling’s The Jungle Book. Oil discovered in Texas. London’s Tower Bridge opened. Death duties (inheritance tax) introduced in Britain. Nellie Melba appears at Covent Garden and chef Auguste Escoffier of Savoy Hotel creates the Pêche Melba. Ben and Frank Wheeler are leading impressarios. The Globe Theatre in Johannesburg, renamed The Empire Palace of Varieties. D.P. du Toit and JHH de Waal begin their theatrical involvement in Cape Town and begin writing plays in Afrikaans. Mahatma Ghandi founds the Natal Indian Congress. Jameson completes occupation of Matabeleland. Uganda becomes a British protectorate. Japan declares war on China.

1895AD

First motion picture shown in Paris by the Lumière brothers. London School of Economics and Political Science founded. Oscar Wilde’s unsuccessful case against the Warquess of Queensbury. Röntgen discovers X-rays. Marconi invents wireless telegraphy transmission. Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of being Earnest. The first actor knighted in England (Irving). Publication of Appia’s La Mise-en-scène du drame wagnérien Gaiety Theatre in Johannesburg opened as a music hall by H. Stodel. Leonard Rayne brought to the country by the Wheeler brothers. Opening of Othello at the Standard Theatre, with Amy Coleridge in the lead. After the fuss of the Jamieson raid dies down, audiences flock to the theatres and players are fêted. Railway between Pretoria and Delagoa Bay completed. Ons Spreekuur debating society founded in Stellenbosch. Rhodesia created by the British SA Co. The Jamieson Raid takes place with a force of Bechuanaland police and volunteers. Italian troops march into Ethiopia. East Africa Portectorate (later Kenya) created.

1896AD

Italians defeated in Ethiopia. Lenin’s Development of Capitalism in Russia. Becquerel discovers radioactivity in uranium. Rioting at Paris production of Jarry’s Ubu Roi. Chekhov’s The Seagull. Puccini’s La Boheme. Mark Twain tours South Africa with his “At Home” lectures. First South African showing of the cinematograph by the “illusionist” Carl Hertz, at the Empire Palace of Varieties, Johannesburg (May 11). The cultural journal Ons Klyntji established, publishing plays. Rinderpest (fatal cattle disease) invades South Africa. Goods train and a dynamite train crash in Braamfontein, 80 killed. Railway linking Pretoria and Durban completed. Jennings, a Briton living in SA, invents radio, independently of Marconi. Jameson captured by Boers and handed to British for trial. Rhodes government falls in Cape Province. M.T. Steyn becomes President of the OFS. The Ndebele and Mashona rebel against British SA Co.

1897AD

Diesel invents the diesel engine. Cezanne’s Lake of Annecy. Thomson identifies the electron. Ds S.J. du Toit’s Magrita Prinslo, first full-length play written and produced in Afrikaans. Leonard Rayne returns to South Africa to play in Master and Man. First car arrives in South Africa. Kruger and Steyn conclude a new pact betweenTransvaal and OFS. Milner becomes high commisioner of Cape Colony. McKinley President in the USA.

1898AD

Curies discover radium. Irish Literary Theatre formed. Moscow Art Theatre formed. Chekhov’s The Seagull a triumph Leonard Rayne returns again with his own company, to appear at the Opera House, Cape Town. W.P. Schreiner becomes Prime Minister of Cape Colony. USA goes to war with Spain, peace is reached in same year.

Return to

Return To A Chronology of South African Theatre and Performance

Return to The ESAT Entries

Return to Main Page