Grahamstown Theatrical Amateur Company

The Grahamstown Theatrical Amateur Company (originally written as the Graham's Town Theatrical Amateur Company) was an English-language amateur dramatic society founded in Grahamstown on 23 May 1837.

It may be the predecessor of what is later referred to as Graham's Town Dramatic Club

The Grahamstown Theatrical Amateur Company

The company existed in Grahamstown till 1850. It used the motto Consacre a la Bienfaisance, Honi Soit qui Mal y Pense (= "Dedicated to charity, Evil to him who evil thinks").

Based at the Commercial Hall between 1837 and 1848, the company was at one stage so popular that the construction of its own theatre was considered in 1841. However, After financial setbacks, the Theatre Royal at Styles' Hotel, New Street became the company's headquarters from 1848 till 1850. Having briefly joined forces with the Victoria Circus in 1849, the Company resumed work on their own again in 1850. War from 1850-1853 halted further theatrical activity. Frederick Timpson l'Ons, a well known artiist, designed and painted scenery for the company's productions in both venues.

Their first performance was Sheridan's The Rivals (Sheridan) and the burlesque Bombastes Furioso by William Barnes Rhodes, Dec 1837. Most famously, the skit Kaatjie Kekkelbek (Bain and Rex) was put on in 1838, which saw the first use of what is generally considered an early form of the Afrikaans language on stage. Laidler also mentions a few other plays done in 1838 (e.g. The Castle Spectre, or The Ghost of Evelina, Chronomoholonthologus, The Spectre Bridegroom, The Midnight Hour, Love Laughs at Locksmiths, Fortune's Frolic), though Bosman (1928: pp. 388-390), who often finds Laidler unreliable, suggests that he may be conflating performances in Cape Town with those in Grahamstown. Yet he does also add that the theatre in Grahamstown at the time did seem to reflect theatrical activities in Cape Town. This may be because the company no doubt collaborated with the amateurs of the local garrison and a number of visiting artists over the years, as did the later Graham's Town Dramatic Club.

More certain seem to be some performances in 1839, which saw them doing pieces like The Innkeeper of Abbeville and Love, Law and Physic, as well as hosting "Mechanical and Picturesque Theatre of Arts" (most probably a presentation by the magician and puppeteer W.F.H. Parker and Mr Parker's Theatre of Mechanics) in the Commercial Hall Grahmastown in December.

[NELM, JH]

The Graham's Town Dramatic Club

[TH]

Sources

Bosman 1928: pp. 388-390

Fletcher, J. 1994 ;

Laidler p. 44

Kirby, 1962;

Du Toit, 1988.

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