The British Volunteers
The Rifle and How to Use It is a farce in two acts by J.V. Bridgeman
Also known as The British Volunteers in South Africa and The Rino, and How to Use It in Australia.
Contents
The original text
Published in London by Thomas Hailes Lacy, [1859] n.d.).
According to The Argus, Melbourne, a play referred to as The Rino, and How to Use It, featuring the exact same characters, was performed at , at the Pantheon Theatre, Cremorne Gardens, Melbourne on 16 January, 1860. It had apparently opened at the Haymarket Theatre. London, in 1859 - but under which title is uncertain.
In South Africa it was apparently also performed under the title The British Volunteers
Translations and adaptations
Performance history in South Africa
1860: Performed as The British Volunteers (no author given) by the Amateurs of the Band on November 26 in the Garrison Theatre of Grahamstown or Keiskama Hoek on the Eastern Cape border. The cast consisted of W. Dansie (Mr Percival Floff), J. M'Kechnie (Mr Sydney Jubkins), T. Brooker (Alfred Charles Mutton, a policeman), W. Allan (Pad), M. Rafferty (Mrs Percival Floff), J. F. Gay (Mrs Sydney Jubkins), J. Durney (Mary). Also performed were The Review, or The Wags of Windsor and The Wandering Minstrel
Sources
S.J. Shapiro. 2011 The British Army in Home Defense, 1844-1871: Militia and Volunteers in a Liberal Era Unpublished PhD dissertation, Graduate School of The Ohio State University[1]
North Lincoln Sphinx Vol 1, No 4. Christmas, 1860.
Advertisement, The Argus (Melbourne), Wednesday January 18, I860: p. 4.[2]
F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.
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