The Talk of the Town

The Talk of the Town is an extremely popular title in the arts.

Often used for plays (e.g. a 1896 comedy by by A.E. Drinkwater, a 1905 musical by Seymour Hicks, a 2005 musical comedy by Ginny Redington and Tom Dawes and a 2012 play by Emma Donoghue), films, novels, musical pieces and other works of art and entertainment, including venues (especially night clubs). For a partial listing, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk_of_the_Town.

Below we list only plays by this title performed in South Africa

The Talk of the Town by Albert Edwin Drinkwater (1851–1923)[]

The original text

Also known as The Talk of the Town, or Agnes Bramber, it was first performed as The Talk of the Town in Cork on 4 December, 1896 and as The Talk of the Town, or Agnes Bramber in Bath.

Performance history in South Africa

1905: Performed as The Talk of the Town by the Sass-Nelson Musical Comedy Company in the Opera House, Cape Town, in February, featuring William Cromwell and Chrissie Leonard.

Sources

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

Allardyce Nicoll. 1975. A History of English Drama 1660-1900: Late 19th Century Drama 1850-1900 Cambridge University Press: p. 351 [1]

https://www.playscripts.com/play/2116#productions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk_of_the_Town

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/oct/08/talk-of-the-town-review

https://www.emmadonoghue.com/stage/the-talk-of-the-town.html

Go to ESAT Bibliography

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