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 found as Brown and the Brahmins, or Captain Pop and The Princess Pretty-Eyes! or simply referred to as Brown and the Brahmins.
Contents
The original text
Based on the drama of the The Illustrious Stranger (Millingen and Kenney, 1827), 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: Performed by the Disney Roebuck company in the Bijou Theatre on 24 July, as an afterpiece to Leah, or The Jewish Maiden (Mosenthal?). The production included "An Ashantee Dance and Chorus" directed by Mr Elton and featured "a band of coloured boys picked from the the streets of Cape Town". 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: Performed by the Disney Roebuck company in the Bijou Theatre, Cape Town, under the auspices of Disney Roebuck on 26 July, with Lady Audley's Secret.
1875: Performed by the Disney Roebuck company in the Bijou Theatre, Cape Town, under the auspices of Disney Roebuck on 28 July, as afterpiece to Black-Ey'd Susan (Burnand).
1875: Performed by the Disney Roebuck company in the Bijou Theatre, Cape Town, under the auspices of Disney Roebuck on 29 July, as afterpiece to The Honeymoon (Tobin).
1875: Performed by the Disney Roebuck company in the Bijou Theatre, Cape Town, under the auspices of Disney Roebuck on 31 July, as a matinee performance.
1875: Performed by the Disney Roebuck company in the Bijou Theatre, Cape Town, under the auspices of Disney Roebuck on 11 August, with Plot and Passion (Taylor and Lang).
1875: Performed by the Disney Roebuck company in the Bijou Theatre, Cape Town, under the auspices of Disney Roebuck on 14 August, with The Palace of Truth (Gilbert).
1875: Performed by the Disney Roebuck company in the Bijou Theatre, Cape Town, under the auspices of Disney Roebuck on 8 September, with Henry Dunbar (Taylor).
Sources
The Victorian Plays Project, Volume 82[1]
F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp. 325-330, 340, 345, 351, 359.
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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