Are You a Mason?

A farce in three acts. Adapted from the German play Die Logenbruder by Carl Laufs and Curt Kraatz by the Hungarian-American Leo Ditrichstein. (The latter name is also written Leo Dietrichstein in some South African sources).

First staged in English on the Broadway stage, starring William Collier, Sr. in 1901. Published in New York by E. Lederer and C. Herrmann, 1901.

Made into a silent film called Are You a Mason? by Adolph Zukor (Famous Players Film Company) and Charles Frohman, directed by Thomas Heffron and starring John Barrymore, distributed through Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by Thomas Heffron and stars John Barrymore in his third feature length film. This film is based on a famous 1901 play by Leo Ditrichstein and enacted on the Broadway stage by William Collier, Sr. in 1901.

South African productions

George Giddens, brought from England by the Wheeler Theatre Company, acted in Are you a Mason?, a farce translated from C. Logenbruder's original German, by at the Good Hope Theatre on 4 April 1904. (Source: Bosman, F.C.L., Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. 1980).

Translated into Afrikaans as Is Jy ‘n Bokryer? by Dirk Mostert and produced by André Huguenet in 194*. The play was greeted with enthusiasm in rural towns, but in the cities this comedy was boycotted due to Huguenet’s refusal to donate funds to the Governor-General's Fund for the war and he was marked as unpatriotic.

Sources

Worldcat entry on Die Logenbruder by Carl Laufs and Curt Kraatz[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Ditrichstein

Bosman, 1980

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