Nervous Cures
Nervous Cures is a Ethiopian skit probably created by the Christy performers Joe Brown and Wash Norton.
Contents
The original text
According to an Australian website about Circus History Society, in its section covering the Barlow Minstrel Troupe[1], they had been shipwrecked on the coast of South Africa and then continued on to Australia, where they went on to perform.
There is a record Brown and Norton performing this particular skit at the School of Arts in Sydney Australia on 5 May, 1863 as part in their final season.
Translations and adaptations
Performance history in South Africa
1868: In November a burlesque called The Nervous Cures was apparently performed in Cape Town by Young Men’s Institute Amateur Christy’s. It was done, along with Charles White's Negro farce United States Mail, as a benefit for the Oddfellows Library and Reading Room.
Sources
Sydney Morning Herald, 5 May, 1863[2]
The Australian Circus History Society Website[3]
W.J. Mahar. 1999. Behind the Burnt Cork Mask: Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture. Volume 442 of Music in American life. University of Illinois Press, 1999
F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik.
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