Nothing Venture, Nothing Win

Nothing Venture, Nothing Win is a comic drama in two acts by Joseph Stirling Coyne (1803-1868)[1].

Sometimes advertised as Never Venture, Never Win by producers/press? (See F.C.L. Bosman, 1980: note 227 on p. 231).

The original text

First performed at The Strand Theatre, London, on 5 April, 1858 and published in London by Thomas Hailes Lacy in the same year.

Performance history in South Africa

1858: Performed by the Cape Town Dramatic Club (and "several amateur gentlemen") in the Harrington Street Theatre, Cape Town, on 7 October, with Bombastes Furioso! (Rhodes). A benefit for the Eastern City.

1859: Performed by the Cape Town Dramatic Club in the Harrington Street Theatre, Cape Town, on 7 September, as prelude to Electra, or A New Electrical Light (Talfourd).

1868: A play called Never Venture, Never Win is performed by the Le Roy and Duret Company in Harrington Street Theatre, Cape Town, on 1 January as afterpiece to Harlequin Prince Perseus, or The Maid and the Monster (Anon.)

Sources

Facsimile version of the 1858 edition by T.H. Lacy, Google E-book[2]

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.144-5, 231

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