Brown and the Brahmins, or Captain Pop and The Princess Pretty-eyes!
Brown and the Brahmins, or Captain Pop and The Princess Pretty-eyes! is an "oriental burlesque" by Robert Brown Reece
Sometimes referred to simply as Brown and the Brahmins.
Contents
The original text
Based on the drama of the The Illustrious Stranger, and first performed at the Royal Globe Theatre, London, on 23 January, 1869. Published in London by T.H. Lacy, 1869.
Translations and adaptations
Performance history in South Africa
1875: Billed as "An Ashantee Dance and Chorus" and presented by "a band of coloured boys picked from the the streets of Cape Town" directed by Mr Elton and presented as an afterpiece to Leah, or The Jewish Maiden (Mosenthal?), under the auspices of Disney Roebuck on 24 July. The novelty of seeing coloured folk on the stage for the first time combined with their "extrvagant contortions of body and limb and grotesque action" apparently set audiences in a furore, though the idea was well received by The Argus on July 27 and the play was repeated a number of times in this season.
1875: Presented again under the auspices of Disney Roebuck on 26 July, with Lady Audley's Secret,
1875: Repeated on 28 July, as afterpiece to Black-Ey'd Susan (Burnand).
Sources
F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.
William Groom. 1899-1900. Drama in Cape Town. Cape Illustrated Magazine, 10(4): 478-481, 517-520, 547-552, 580-584, 640-643, 670-672, 706-708.
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