The House Warming can refer to any of two stage plays.

The House Warming, a comedy by an anonymous author (ca. 1870s)

The original text

The sources have no information on this play, but it may have been a stage adaptation of the ballad "The House-warming! A legend of Bleeding-Heart Yard" (from The Ingoldsby Legends). A version of it was apparently seen by Charles Dickens, in that case as a stage adaptation called Lady Hatton, or The Suicide’s Tree by George Dibden Pitt (1795-1855)[1]

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1878: Performed as The House Warming by the Egerton and Case Company in the Athenaeum Hall, Cape Town, on 9 August.

The Housewarming a comedy in one act by Arthur Aldrich (1994)

The original text

Beattie Gladwin, too old to look after herself any longer, is forced to sell the house, which she’s lived in throughout her marriage. But she doesn’t want to let go of the house or the memories; so when the young couple, Michelle and Brian move in, she visits them and they become embroiled in to the events, which took place in the past. Beattie’s sister, Polly, is also present. Strange things have happened and continue to happen and Michelle and Brian are not certain whether their visitors are real or ghosts.

Originally published by Samuel French in 1994

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

Sources

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: p.371

https://www.concordtheatricals.co.uk/p/15160/the-housewarming

https://books.google.co.za/books/about/The_Housewarming.html?id=b2F0QgAACAAJ&redir_esc=y

"Arthur Aldrich, English Dramatist" in Colin Dolley and Rex Walford, 2015. The One-Act Play Companion: A Guide to plays, playwrights and performance. Bloomsbury Publishing: p.31 [2]

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