Madame Sans-Gêne

Madame Sans-Gêne is a historical comedy-drama in three acts, with a prologue, by Victorien Sardou and Émile Moreau.

The original text

Set in Paris, it tells the story of Napoleon I and a laundress, Catherine Üpscher, an outspoken 18th-century laundress who became the Duchess of Danzig when she married Marshal Lefebvre.

The play opened at the Théâtre du Vaudeville, Paris, on 27 October 1893, and was revived many times in France as well as touring the English provinces in 1897.

Translations and adaptations

Translated and adapted as a comic opera in three acts called The Duchess of Dantzic by Henry Hamilton and Ivan Caryl. First produced in London at the Lyric Theatre in 1903, the opera ran for 236 performances. Subsequently, it enjoyed a successful New York production at Daly's Theatre and other productions around the world, and was revived in London and performed regularly by amateur theatre groups, particularly in Britain, until the 1950s.

It was also adapted as a French opera (1915), and filmed several times.

Performance history in South Africa

1906: The Duchess of Dantzic first performed in South Africa by the Wheeler-Edwardes Gaiety Company in the Opera House, Cape Town, on 28 May, featuring Wyford Stamford and Anna Hickish.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Sans-G%C3%AAne_(play)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Duchess_of_Dantzic

D.C. Boonzaier. 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1923. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: p.425

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