The Bal Masqué (Sloppy Sam)
The Bal Masqué (Sloppy Sam) is a comic work by an unknown author, performed in South Africa in the 1860s.
This is not to be confused with Le Bal Masqué, the comic opera by Arthur Henry Ward (1883–1959).
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The original text
Billed as a "side-splitting entertainment", the work is ascribed to Arthur H. Ward by F.C.L. Bosman (1980: p. 260). However this is impossible, since the performance referred to dates from 1867, and Ward was only born in 1883. So it is most probably another, earlier, burlesque-style work by an unknown author, not Ward and Vernon's operatic work Le Bal Masqué (1898), though it may have been a source for the later work.
See also: Le Bal Masqué
Translations and adaptations
Performance history in South Africa
1867: A "side-splitting entertainment" called The Bal Masqué (Sloppy Sam) was performed by the dramatic company of the 9th Regiment in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town on 8 June, with Othello in Ireland ("semi-serio" opera based on Shakespeare).
1867: The Bal Masqué (Sloppy Sam) repeated by the dramatic company of the 9th Regiment in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town on 15 June, with The Rose of Ettrick Vale (Lynch).
Sources
F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.
Allardyce Nicoll. 1975. A History of English Drama 1660-1900: Late 19th Century Drama 1850-1900 Cambridge University Press[1]
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