The Bennees

The Bennees is the name used by local sources to refer to the theatrical couple, W.J.S. Bennee and Fanny Raynor (Mrs Bennee) when they were touring the British colonies in the 1860s-1870s.

W.J.S. Bennee (fl 1860s-1870s)

He was a British Shakespearean actor.

Married to, and business partner of, the actress Fanny Raynor (Mrs Bennee).

Fanny Raynor (fl 1860s-1870s)

She was a young British actress.

Married to, and business partner of W.J.S. Bennee, she was either billed as "Miss Fanny Raynor", or "Mrs Bennee"

The Bennees in South Africa

Mr Bennee and Mrs Bennee arrived in South Africa in September 1868 as part of a new company of performers that J.H. le Roy had engaged in England to form part of the Leroy-Duret company. They then participated in a season of plays for that company in the Theatre Royal in Harrington Street, Cape Town

Having broken rather acrimoniously with Sefton Parry, the couple now took off on their own with a scratch company (referred to as The Bennees by Bosman), undertaking a 15 month tour of the Eastern Cape and the Orange Free State during the course of 1868-69, performing with the aid of local amateurs wherever they appeared. They ended back in Cape Town, where they presented a farewell benefit in Cape Town under the auspices of the Governor and the Freemasons in on 31 May, 1869. The bill consisted of Hamlet (Shakespeare), Personation or Fairly Taken In (Dieulafoy/Decamp) and How to Win a Widow (Allingham?).

They then left the Cape for the colonies in the East, for example visiting India and Australia . There they once more performed leading roles such as that of "Claude Melnotte" and "Pauline" in The Lady of Lyons (Bulwer-Lytton), "Hamlet" and "Ophelia" in Hamlet (Shakespeare) and "Petruchio" and "Katherine" in The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare) - none of these to great success, at least not in Melbourne it would appear.

As an actress she never seemed quite to live up to the publicity dispersed by the company. In Australia for example, the critic of The Advocate (10 August, 1872) said: "Miss Jaynor lacks animation, not possessing, as it seemed to us, the nervous character which is indispensable to a lady undertaking leading parts", a sentiment echoeing that of Boonzaier in Cape Town, South Africa.

Sources

"Public Amusements", The Advocate, Melbourne, Victoria: 10 Aug 1872 (Page 15), Trove[1]

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, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.

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Having broken rather acrimoniously with Sefton Parry, the Bennees now took off on their own with a scratch company, undertaking a 15 month tour of the Eastern Cape and the Orange Free State during the course of 1868-69, performing with the aid of local amateurs wherever they appeared. They ended back in Cape Town, where they presented a farewell benefit in Cape Town under the auspices of the Governor and the Freemasons in on 31 May, 1869. The bill consisted of Hamlet (Shakespeare), Personation or Fairly Taken In (Dieulafoy/Decamp) and How to Win a Widow (Allingham?).

They then left the Cape for the colonies in the East, for example visiting India and Australia . There they once more performed leading roles such as that of "Claude Melnotte" and "Pauline" in The Lady of Lyons (Bulwer-Lytton), "Hamlet" and "Ophelia" in Hamlet (Shakespeare) and "Petruchio" and "Katherine" in The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare) - none of these to great success, at least not in Melbourne it would appear.

As an actress she never seemed quite to live up to the publicity dispersed by the company. In Australia for example, the critic of The Advocate (10 August, 1872) said: "Miss Jaynor lacks animation, not possessing, as it seemed to us, the nervous character which is indispensable to a lady undertaking leading parts", a sentiment echoeing that of Boonzaier in Cape Town, South Africa.

Sources

"Public Amusements", The Advocate, Melbourne, Victoria: 10 Aug 1872 (Page 15), Trove[2]