The Woman in White

The Woman in White can refer to the famous novel by Wilkie Collins (1824-1889)[1] and to a number of dramatized versions of the novel.

The Novel

The Woman in White is a highly regarded novel by Wilkie Collins ()[], written in 1859 and is viewed as one of the the first mystery novels and so called "sensation novels". First published in serial form in 1859–60, in both Charles Dickens' magazine All the Year Round (UK) and Harper's Weekly (USA). It was published in book form in 1860.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Woman_in_White_(novel)

Stage adaptations

The novel has been adapted in many ways over the years, including theatrical versions under various other titles. Among those titled The Woman in White have been a "Surrey Theatre stage sensation melodrama"( 1860), a version by Sutton Vane Snr. (1867), Wilkie Collins's own version called a "stage melodrama" (1871)[2],

Among the later versions have been versions by Tim Kelly (1974, a melodrama called Egad, the Woman in White), Andrew Lloyd Webber (stage musical, 2004)[3] and Constance Cox (play, 2008).

The White Queen by Boulding/Palgrave(?) (1890s)

Not to be confused with Philippa Gregory's novel or the BBC series based on it.

The original text

An historical play set in the time of Louis XII, The White Queen is a dramatization of Wilkie Collins's mystery novel The Woman in White (1859), and was specifically written for the actress Lillian Beddard, said by her to be by "Palgrave of London" (other sources have is a play, with J.W. Boulding as the author).

The play was most successfully produced in London by Bedard, who later took it on her many international tours as part of her repertoire.

Performance history of the various stage versions in South Africa

1867: The Woman in White performed (possibly in the Sutton Vane version and billed as "Wilkie Collins's Popular Sensational Play") on 21 and 24 October in the Theatre Royal, Harrington Street, Cape Town, by the Le Roy and Duret Company, with a "Grand Pas Seul" by Miss Clara and A Model Husband (Wooler).

1867: Performed as The Woman in White by the Le Roy and Duret Company in the Theatre Royal, Harrington Street, Cape Town, on 4 November, with The Loan of a Lover (Planché) and the "Grand Scarf", a dance by Miss Clara.

1876: Performed as The Woman in White (probably Collins's official version) by Disney Roebuck and his company in the Athenaeum Hall]], Cape Town, on 26 and 27 April.

1888-9 The White Queen performed by Lillian Beddard and her company in South Africa, inter alia at the Theatre Royal, Johannesburg, with Beddard as "Lady Mary".

Sources

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

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

https://wilkiecollinssociety.org/opening-up-the-secret-theatre-of-home-wilkie-collinss-the-woman-in-white-on-the-victorian-stage

https://www.andrewlloydwebber.com/show/the-woman-in-white/

Laurence Wright. "Shakespeare in South Africa: The Nineteenth Century". Internet Shakespeare Editions[online]. University of Victoria, Accessed 16 July 2020[4]

"A Grass Widow Now, Lillian Beddard Will Face the Footlights and Her Diamonds Alone", in The San Francisco Call, Monday, March 30, 1896[5]

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 1923. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp. 206, 230, 234, 294-5, 344, 361.

http://wilkiecollinssociety.org/newsletter-spring-2010/

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