La Gamine

La Gamine is a French play by Pierre Veber ()[] and Henri Gorsse ()[]

The original text

Translations and adaptations

Translated into English and transported to a South African context by Stephen Black as The Flapper. The translation was first produced in 1911 and presented as "a new South African play in four acts" by an anonymous authors. When pressed Black intimated that they were "local people". This version was first produced to vastly contradicting reviews in 1911, with a furore erupting about the authorship between the author and the local critics in Johannesburg and Black eventually admitting it was a translation. However, the adaptation was very popular and the play became one of Black's major successes.

Performance history in South Africa

1911: Produced as The Flapper

1912: Performed as The Flapper by the same cast in the Opera House, Cape Town, opening on 27 July.

1917: The Flapper was revived at the Standard Theatre, Johannesburg, in February, with Stephen Black in the role of "Henry Fenton", supported by Cecil Kellaway, Margaret van Hulsteyn, Dolly Sinclair, Erie Drew, Mabel Morton, Frikkie Paget, Herbert Traynor, Justus Gerard and Lilian Bell.

Sources

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 1932. (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: pp.203-205

Stage and Cinema, 4(82):9.)

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