Lady Anne Barnard

(1750-1825). Socialite and cultural commentator.

Wife of the secretary to two British Governors (Sir George Yonge and Macartney) during the first British occupation of the Cape (1797-1806). Her letters and journals are a wonderful source of information about the times. Her value for theatre studies is her interest in theatre and her comments on the building of the African Theatre and the performances of the time.

Considered to have written the first "review" of a play - her comments on the first performance of Samuel Foote's Taste in the Barracks Theatre in 1800 (under the guidance of Dr Somers). She also left a sketch and poem about the theatre.

She also refers obliquely to some verses she had written and submitted anonymously for use in the last performances of the Barracks Theatre (at the time referred to rather grandly as the Sealines Theatre by Mrs Somers). Apparently they were performed to some acclaim as part of the evening's play.

Later came to love it, though was opposed to the idea initially. A number of plays and books have been written about her and her times, including Lady Anne Barnard and her Friends by Cecil Lewis (1920s), The Lady Anne gets her Bath by Dennis Rhodes Granger (1951), **[TH]