Entertainments
Entertainment is a specific term most prominent in the 19th century and used to refer to presentations by such (mainly English, or Anglicised) institutions such as military garrisons, amateur theatrical companies, high schools, some lodges and student associations - .
Dramatic Entertainments is a generic term popular in the 19th century, usually referring to any for of dramatic presentation, often of an amateur nature, where a group of theatre-lovers or literary enthusiasts, who meet for the purpose of discussing and undertaking dramatised readings or even performances of plays, poems and narratives, either for their members or for the public.
Other terms associated with this concept include Playreading Groups, Playreading Clubs.
In some cases referred to as Dramatic Entertainments (e.g. ).
For information on specific groups by this name, see the Bloemfontein Literary and Scientific Society and Bloemfontein theatre in the 19thC
See also Theatrical Entertainments
Sources
P.J. du Toit, 1988[JH]
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The programmes were a mixed bag, with comic dialogues, short plays, musical turns, comic songs, tableaux, and the like often made up part of such an evening of "entertainment". On occasion they consisted of more serious literary fare and were given more suitable names, e.g. Mr Hill's Literary Entertainment of the late 1840s, Dramatic and Musical Entertainments by Mrs Greig (1851), etc.
However there is strong evidence that a similar kind of event was also prevalent among Dutch and Afrikaans communities in the 19th century, though possibly slightly more . (See also Debating societies) The Afrikaans programmes initially used the English term in parenthesis - i.e. "Entertainment" , but gradually came to employ an Afrikaans term Konsert - i.e.:"Concert" - for the same idea. In the early 20th century Konserte (in this sense) were very popular and the term was even transferred to English (e.g. the "school concert").
In the mid 1860s the Garrison Theatre versions of Dramatic Entertainments (e.g. those put on by the 1st battalion of the 9th Regiment, Cape Town), began to contain gymnastic acts as well, and were thus sometimes styled Dramatic and Gymnastic Entertainments.
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