David Garrick

David Garrick is a comic play by T.W. Robertson[1] (1829-1871).

The original play

A play about the famous 18th-century actor and theatre manager, David Garrick[2] (1717-1779). By Robertson's own admission his play was based on Sullivan, a three-act French comedy by Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier de Mélésville (also known as "Mélesville" or "A.H.J. Duveyrier", 1787-1865)[3] (first played in 1852). In his Preface to his "novelette" called David Garrick, Robertson mentions that Duveyrier's play called Sullivan was performed at St James's Theatre, London, by a company of French comedians, where he saw and liked it, and then wrote his own English play.

Robertson's play premiéred at the Prince of Wales Theater in Birmingham, where it was successful enough to be moved to the Haymarket Theatre in London, on 30 April 1864. Published in London by S.O. Beeton, 1865.

"Garrick" became a popular virtuoso role for a number of performers over the years, including Disney Roebuck, who performed it often, all over the world. In fact the value of Robertson's play has on occasion even been ascribed to Roebuck's interpretation of it, rather than to the text's inherent merits (e.g. a review in The Argus, Cape Town, on 2 December, 1873, cited in F.C.L. Bosman, 1980: p. 306, footnote 6).

As a measure of its popularity, a 1923 book, Public Speaking Today, recommends David Garrick for performance by high school students alongside The Importance of Being Earnest and The Rivals.

Translations and adaptations

David Garrick. A Love Story by T.W. Robertson, is a "novelette expanded from the play" (i.e. Robertson's own play of the same title), which had been adapted from A.H.J. Duveyrier's play Sullivan

The 1907 musical The Beauty of Bath (Hicks and Hamilton) was loosely based on this work.

Performances in South Africa

1873: It was the first play done by Disney Roebuck when he set out to tour the Western and Eastern Cape Provinces with his company in 1873, it opened his first season in the Mutual Hall (i.e. the concert hall of the Mutual Building) in Cape Town, playing on 26-29 November with Perfection, or The Lady of Munster (Bayly) as afterpiece.

1875: Performed in the Bijou Theatre, Cape Town, by Disney Roebuck and company on 19 August with as Miss Eily O'Connor (Byron).

1929: It was one of the plays performed by a West End theatre company from London, led by actor-manager Gerald Lawrence, which toured South Africa and Rhodesia, putting on a portfolio of five plays. The tour played in venues owned by African Theatres Ltd. and started in Johannesburg on 1st April 1929 and finished in Cape Town on 3rd October.