Nervous Cures

Nervous Cures is a Ethiopian skit probably created by the Christy performers Joe Brown and Wash Norton.

Also known as The Nervous Cures, The Nervous Cures! or The Nerves (De Zenuwen in Dutch).

The original text

This skit is likely to have been a part of the repertoire of the Christy Minstrels when they toured the British colonies in 1862, for a Dutch newspaper (Het Volksblad, Cape Town, 6 November, 1862) mentioned a piece called as De Zenuwen (The Nerves) that had been presented as part of the repertoire of "the original" the Christy Minstrels while on a visit to and tour of the Cape Colony (from September to November). This was probably an alternative title for the earlier version of The Nervous Cures!.

According to the Australian website of the Circus History Society, in its section covering the Barlow Minstrel Troupe[1], the Christy Minstrels troupe, of which Brown and Norton were members, had been shipwrecked on the coast of South Africa in 1863 while on their way from Cape Town to Australia and - having been saved - continued on to Australia, where they went on to continue their performances there.

There is a record Brown and Norton performing this particular skit at the School of Arts in Sydney Australia on 5 May, 1863 as part in their final season. A version of the music, "arranged for the pianoforte by M. Younger", was published in Sydney by W.J. Johnson &​ Co., somewhere between 1863-69. The publication is "Dedicated to the Christy's Minstrels" (sic).

Performance history in South Africa

1862: A piece called as De Zenuwen (The Nerves) was presented as part of the repertoire of "the original" the Christy Minstrels while in the Cape Colony (from September to November). This was probably an alternative title for the earlier version of The Nervous Cures!.

1865: Performed in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, again as The Nerves, during September by the OIO Christy's Minstrels, led by Alfred Ray.

1866: Performed as The Nervous Cures by the Le Roy-Duret Company in the Harrington Street Theatre, Cape Town, on 18 June, with Good for Evil, or A Wife's Trial (Augier), The Actress of All Work (Oxberry) and (as a special request for Lady Wodehouse, wife of the Governor) Hunting a Turtle, or Trust a Woman's Wit (Selby).

1866: Performed as The Nervous Cures by the Le Roy-Duret Company in the Harrington Street Theatre, Cape Town, as a children's matinee on 25 August, with On the Sly (Morton), The Dancing Scotchman (Flexmore and Auriol?) and a Shadow Pantomime.

1866: Performed on 8 September in the Garrison Theatre, Cape Town, as The Nervous Cures and announced as an "entirely new version of the Popular Dance-Song" by six members of the 9th Regiment's dramatic company. Also performed were Luke the Labourer (Buckstone) and Bombastes Furioso (Rhodes).

1866: Performed again on 18 September by the 9th Regiment in the Garrison Theatre, Cape Town, this time The Area Belle (Brough and Halliday) and Luke the Labourer (Buckstone), as well as a sword dance by H. Wallace.

1867: Performed on 3 August by the 9th Regiment in the Garrison Theatre, Cape Town, with Othello in Ireland (Shakespeare/Anon.), three gymnastic performances and a Scottish folk dance and a sword dance by H. Wallace.

1868: In November a burlesque called The Nervous Cures was apparently performed in Cape Town by Young Men’s Institute Amateur Christy’s. It was done, along with Charles White's Negro farce United States Mail, as a benefit for the Oddfellows Library and Reading Room.

1872: Performed in Cape Town as The Nervous Cures some time in October, by an unnamed (garrison?) company, as part of an evening of musical and dramatic entertainment in aid of a new bell for St Mary's Cathedral. Probably taking place in the Catholic Hall (formerly known as the St Aloysius Hall), the programme for the evening also included The Toothaches (Anon.) and The Happy Man (Lover).

Sources

http://nla.gov.au:80/tarkine/nla.obj-169687756 - Accessed 8/01/19 5:12 AM

Het Volksblad, 6 November, 1862

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp. 139-141,

Sydney Morning Herald, 5 May, 1863[2]

The Australian Circus History Society Website[3]

W.J. Mahar. 1999. Behind the Burnt Cork Mask: Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture. Volume 442 of Music in American life. University of Illinois Press, 1999

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