The Pageant of Union

The Pageant of Union (also known as The Pageant of South Africa) was a celebratory event held in Cape Town in May of 1910 to celebrate the inauguration of the new state, was composed of a sequence of historical episodes. Scenes of "landfall" and "first encounter" are repeated throughout the pageant's progress: first the Portuguese, then the Dutch, then the 1820 English settlers. Scenes of covenant and friendship and their converse, sworn enmity, are repeated as are images of the bringing of Christianity and civilization, and of newness, dawning, light within the darkness. And overall the figure of the Queen – Britannia, Elizabeth, Victoria – dominates the passage of her heroes on the stage.

Sources

Collect Southern Africa website [1]

Loren Kruger. 2020. A Century of South African Theatre. Methuen Drama.

Go to South African Theatre/Bibliography

Return to

Return to P in Plays IV Festivals and Pageants

Return to South_African_Theatre/Plays

Return to The ESAT Entries

Return to Main Page

Extravaganza held on the Cape Foreshore to celebrate the Union of South Africa in 1910. The pageant was directed by Frank Lascelles, the British master of spectacles, and featured amateur-players from Cape Town as well as from other towns. (The pageant apparently took place in October of that year) It comprised a series of scenes from South African colonial history, culminating in the moment of Union.

A souvenir booklet called Historical Sketch and Description of the Pageant Held at Cape Town on the Occasion of the Opening of the First Parliament of the Union of South Africa was published in the same year.

See the full discussion on the Collect Southern Africa website (http://www.southafricacollector.com/11_Collect_Southern_Africa/03_1910_Cape_Town_Pageant.htm)

Return to P

Return to South African Theatre Plays

Return to Main Page