Standard Theatre

The Standard Theatre was a Johannesburg theatre located in Joubert Street (behind the Rissik Street Post Office) between President and Market Street.

Often referred to as The Standard.

History

A prestigious Victorian horseshoe-shaped theatre, it was opened on 12 October 1891 by Capt. Von Brandis as the Standard Opera House. The architects were J. S. Donaldson and J. A. Moffat. The first solid, purpose-built and lushly decorated theatre in the city, it seated 800 people, but could house up to 1000 with extra seating - though, according to P.J. du Toit (1988) it could house 1400. The interior was Victorian with decorated ceilings, a brass-railed orchestra pit, and steeply pitched galleries. The boxes featured gilded plaster mouldings that were picked up by rose-tinted glass lampshades.

The Standard was leased by Ben Wheeler in 1892 who opened with a musical comedy and later put on six Shakespearean productions and twenty other plays. The owners were Emmanuel Mendelssohn and R.S. Scott who also owned the newspaper ‘Standard and Diggers’ news’. Wheeler also brought the famous D’Oyly Carte Opera Company to SA. Both the Zionist Dramatic Society and Jewish Musical Society put on biblical plays and serious dramas at The Standard.

In the early 1900s, the theatre was leased by Messrs. Sass & Nelson who held a sub-lease from the trustees of the state of F. De Jong.

The favoured venue of touring theatre and opera companies from England, it was later taken over by Leonard Rayne and used for his productions (many featuring and his popular leading lady, Freda Godfrey), till Rayne's untimely death in 1925. During the second world war it became a favoured venue for the Gwen ffrangçon-Davies and Marda Vanne company’s seasons of major plays and was also the home of the Johannesburg REPS.

The Standard was forced to close its doors in September, 1947, by the council as a fire hazard and although money was raised by various stage personalities of the time to fix the fire hazards, the council was seemingly uninterested. It was was demolished in 1956, despite major protests from the theatrical fraternity, to make way for a park. The area is now known as the Ernest Oppenheimer Park and was revitalised and re-opened in 2010.

Building works

In the late 1890s, the Georgian-styled theatre was encased on three sides by a three-storey block of shops, offices, and rooms in late Victorian style with ornate ironwork. From 1902 there were several additions and alterations to the theatre that included work on the stage, dressing rooms, drainage, and lavatories. In 1911 a bioscope box was added. In addition to theatre work, there was also much work on the buildings and individual shops that made up Standard Buildings with much of the design work done by J. A. Moffat and Mcintosh.

Productions

1891: At the opening, Dan Godfrey then led the orchestra through De Volkslied, after which the curtain went up on La Cigale, the opening play produced by Arturo Bomamici.

1896: Mark Twain performed his At Home there in May 1896.

1925: W.J. Pienaar's Saul (an Afrikaans play); Patriots, a one-act play by Bertha Goudvis presented as part of a triple-bill.

1927: Sunshine Land, a South African musical by Bertha Goudvis, produced by Henry Miles.

1929: A Backveld Boer, a comedy in three acts by Stephen Black.

1942: Pawns in the Game, starring Moira Lister.

1943: Gwen Ffrangçon-Davies and Marda Vanne presented Watch on the Rhine by Lilian Hellman, starring Gwen ffrangçon-Davies and Derick Redman.

1944: Cottage to Let presented by the Johannesburg Repertory Society; The Gold Earth, Lewis Sowden's dramatization of the early Witwatersrand and the discovery of gold; Shakespeare’s Women, presented by Marie Ney; Granite presented by the Johannesburg Repertory Players.

1946: This was a prolific year, with Elizabeth Renfield and company performing Mourning Becomes Electra by Eugene O'Neill and an adaptation of Wuthering Heights with Johann Nell playing Heathcliff opposite Miss Renfield’s Cathy; Wensley Pithey and company staged Laburnum Grove, starring Siegfried Mynhardt; the Theatre Guild Company staged The Lady of the Rose; the Munro-Inglis Company produced Shaw’s Pygmalion and in December Taubie Kushlick directed and played in George Washington Slept Here, starring Wensley Pithey and Gordon Mulholland.

1946: Di Goldgreber, a Yiddish comedy produced by Faivel Zygielbaum.

1947: Marjorie Gordon and company, in association with ACT, presented Coward's Design for Living; Siegfried Mynhardt directed Laura for the Johannesburg REPS; the Munro-Inglis Company staged their last Standard Theatre production, Somerset Maugham's Lady Frederick starring Siegfried Mynhardt and Golden Boy, by Clifford Odets turned out to be the last production to be performed at The Standard. Henry Gilbert cast Eric Boon and Gay Gibson in this 1947 production.

Sources

Percy Tucker, 1997 (See Binge, 1969?, Du Toit, 1988; Tucker, 1997) [TH, JH]

https://johannesburg1912.com/2013/07/29/theatres-in-early-johannesburg/

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