Der Wirrwarr, oder der Muthwillige
Der Wirrwarr, oder der Muthwillige ("The confusion, or the headstrong person") is a farce in 4 or 5 acts by August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue (1761-1819)[1].
Contents
Original text
First performed and published in 1803.
Translations and adaptations
Translated into Dutch as De Verwarring ("The confusion") by Jan Steven van Esveldt Holtrop. Published in Amsterdam by W. Holtrop, 1803.
Bosman (1928, p. 79) suggests that it may have been translated into Dutch and adapted as a one-act tragedy called De Moetwillige Jongen by an anonymous author as early as 1802, though there is some doubt about this, since this is a year before the play's original German publication - unless this was a pirated version.
The other, far more convincing, alternative is that De Moetwillige Jongen is an original Dutch play, a version of the one-act comic-morality De Gramschap, of Moetwillige Boots-gesel, by Ogier .
(See further De Moetwillige Jongen)
Performance history in South Africa
1809: Performed in Dutch as De Verwarring by Tot Nut en Vermaak on 10 June 1809 in the African Theatre, as afterpiece to De Kluizenaar op Formentera (Von Kotzebue) .
1827: Performed in Dutch as De Verwarring by Tot Nut en Vermaak on 21 April in the African Theatre, as afterpiece to De Moeder des Huisgezins, of Is er Geen Orde voor Edele Huisvrouwen? (Von Kotzebue).
1843: Performed in Dutch as De Verwarring by Tot Nut en Vermaak on 8 August with Het Verloren Kind (Von Kotzebue).
Sources
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_von_Kotzebue
http://www.antiqbook.com/books/bookinfo.phtml?o=steu&bnr=7481
Text of the first German edition of Der Wirrwarr, oder der Muthwillige[2]
Text of the first Dutch edition of De Verwarring[3]
F.C.L. Bosman. 1928. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel I: 1652-1855. Pretoria: J.H. de Bussy. [4]: pp. 131, 241, 270, 443
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