Resurrection

Resurrection can refer to two plays produced in South Africa

Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy (1905)

The novel

The story of Katusha, a country girl, who is seduced and abandoned by Prince Nekludov. Nekludov finds himself, years later, on a jury trying the same Katusha for a crime he now realizes his actions drove her to. He follows her to imprisonment in Siberia, intent on redeeming her and himself as well.

Based on the novel Воскресеніе, Leo Tolstoy's last novel, a version first published in 1899, though the complete text was only published in Russia in 1936 and in English in 1938. It is known in English translation by various names, including Resurrection and The Awakening)[1].

Translations and adaptations

For the stage

In 1902 adapted as a French play called Résurrection by Henri Bataille (1872-1922)[2] and styled an "Épisode Dramatique" in five acts and a prologue. It was first performed at the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe on 14 November 1902. Later revivced at the Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin on 25 January, 1905 and again at the Théâtre National de l'Odéon on 24 February, 1923.

The French text was produced in its original at His Majesty's Theatre, London on 17 February, 1903, while an English version - translated into English by Michael Morton (1864-1934)[3] opened simultaneously in the Victoria Theatre, London, also on 17 February. The latter was produced by Beerbohm Tree and his company, directed by Percy Nash (Beerbohm Tree apparently advertised the English versions as "less shocking than the French play to the sensibilities of Mrs. Grundy"[4]). It played there till 30 April, 1903.

A typescript copy of the English text held in the New York Public Library collection[5] and the text itself was published by F.J. Wildman, 1903.

It was not Tolstoi's "Resurrection" that was seen last night at the Victoria, nor yet the faithful stage version of it by the young French disciple of the great Russian, Henri Bataille. It was Michael Morton's English version of the French play, which , and which was simultaneously produced last night at His Majesty's Theatre, London.

In 1930 Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko also did a stage version for the Moscow Art Theatre.

Other adaptations

It has also seen a number of operatic versions, early ones such as French composer Albert Roussel's 1903 tone poem Résurrection and Italian composer Franco Alfano's Risurrezione (1904), followed by later versions include Vzkriesenie (1960) by Slovak composer Ján Cikker, and Resurrection by American composer Tod Machover.

Filmed a number of times

Performance history in South Africa

1905: Performed a Resurrection by the William Haviland and his company in the Opera House, Cape Town, in June, probably using the Bataille and Morton version.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection_(novel)

Copy of the French text in Henry Bataille Résurrection, Théâtre Complet, Ernest Flammarion, 1922, Tome III (p. 9-193)[6]

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Bataille

https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/michael-morton-7740

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Morton_(dramatist)

https://books.google.co.za/books?id=sB_BQwAACAAJ&sitesec=reviews&redir_esc=y

https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/88024/resurrection#overview

https://www.nytimes.com/1903/02/18/archives/tolstoi-at-fourth-hand-resurrection-seen-through-a-glass-darkly-at.html

Rebecca Beasley and Philip Ross Bullock (eds). 2013. Russia in Britain, 1880-1940: From Melodrama to Modernism. Oxford University Press[7]

D.C. Boonzaier, 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1932. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: p.422

Go to ESAT Bibliography

Resurrection by Richard Rive (1966)

The original text

A one-act play, adapted by Richard Rive () from his short story of the same name, it deals with the ambiguities of the "coloured" designation - a theme which Rive will return to in Buckingham Palace, District Six.

The play was first performed in April 1966 by Experimental Theatre at the University of Columbia and published in Short African Plays (Ed: Cosmo Pieterse, 1968 ) by Heinemann and later again in Selected Writings (Johannesburg: Ad Donker, 1976).

Performance history in South Africa

Presented by the University of the Witwatersrand as part of a double bill with All's Well at the National Arts Festival Student Drama in 1985 starring Jacquiline Dommisse, Gilda Blacher, Niel Lessick. Directed by Graeme Messer, stage manager Mary Gill, lighting Paul Abrahams, company manager Morag Todd.

Sources

National Arts Festival programme, 1985.

Go to ESAT Bibliography

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