Les Frères Corses

Les Frères Corses is a French play in three acts and five tableaux by Eugène Grangé and Xavier de Montépinthe.

The original text

The play, called a "drame fantastique en trois actes et cinq tableaux", is a dramatization of the French novella Les Frères Corses by Alexandre Dumas, père (1802–1870)[1], first published in 1844 by Souverain. The work tells the adventurous and melodramatic story of two conjoined brothers who, though separated at birth, can still feel each other's pains and fears and seek to aid each other. First performed at the Théâtre-Historique in Paris on 10 July, 1850.

Translations and adaptations

Translated and adapted into English as The Corsican Brothers by Dion Boucicault (1820-1890)[2]. Boucicault's version was written for the actor-manager Charles Kean and it was first performed at the Princess's Theatre on 24 February 1852, directed by Kean, who also played both of the brothers. It went on to become a hugely popular melodrama, much performed in the late 19th century.

Performance history in South Africa

Sources

Facsimile version of the French stage text, BnF Gallica[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Corsican_Brothers_(play)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Corsican_Brothers

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Dumas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dion_Boucicault

D.C. Boonzaier. 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1923. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.

Go to ESAT Bibliography