La Famille Benoîton
La Famille Benoîton is a play by Victorien Sardou ()[].
Contents
The original text
The German text, called a "Schwank in Vier Akten" was first performed in 1878 and the text published in 1891, with an English introduction, notes and vocabulary by B.W. Wells.
Translations and adaptations
Translated into Dutch as De Bibliothecaris by an anonymous author, probably in the early 1880s.
The play was translated into English and adapted by Charles Hawtrey (1858-1923)[1] and re-titled as The Private Secretary. The English play originally had four acts, but was soon reduced to three acts and became very successful, running at the Cambridge Royal Theatre in 1883 before being brought to London in 1884, and playing there until 1886. Hawtrey himself revived the play twice, in 1892 at the Comedy Theatre, and in 1895 at the Avenue Theatre.
Performance history in South Africa
1886: Performed as The Private Secretary by the Wheeler Brothers Company in the Theatre Royal in Burg Street, Cape Town, with Irish Justice (Anon./Morton?) in May. It was their opening production there, and Frank Wheeler played the leading roles in both plays ("Reverend Spalding" and "Peter Mulvaney").
1892: Performed as The Private Secretary in the Vaudeville Theatre, Cape Town, by the visiting Emilie Bevan Comedy Company as part of a three-and-a-half month season of 20 plays which began on 8 August.
1890s: Performed, somewhere between 1891 and 1898, in Dutch as De Bibliothekaris by the rederijkerskamer Oefening Baart Kunst in the President Theatre, Pretoria (no author mentioned).
1929: Presented as The Private Secretary by the Kokstad Amateur Dramatic Society, produced by S.J. Halford, with A.L. Moon, Douglas Halford, Eric Haird, Tom Christie, Mrs T. Scott Warren, Maud Sandwich, Gertrude Wallace. Scenery imported from Messrs Samuel French from London, adapted for local requirements by Joe Cuthbert.
1958: Performed as The Private Secretary at the Little Theatre, Cape Town, was directed by Gordon Roberts.
Sources
Facsimile version of the German text, edited with introduction, notes and vocabulary by B.W. Wells[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Private_Secretary
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_von_Moser
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Hawtrey_(actor,_born_1858)
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.381, 394-5
Ludwig Wilhelm Berthold Binge. 1969. Ontwikkeling van die Afrikaanse toneel (1832-1950). Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik.
P.J. du Toit. 1988. Amateurtoneel in Suid-Afrika. Pretoria: Academica.
Jill Fletcher. 1994. The Story of Theatre in South Africa: A Guide to its History from 1780-1930. Cape Town: Vlaeberg.
Footlights 1(5):12, 1929.
Inskip, Donald P., 1972.
Go to ESAT Bibliography
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A play about female frivolity and the disdain aristocrats have for self-made men.
Adapted into German as "Volksstück" in four acts called Hasemanns Töchter by Adolphe L' Arronge (1838-1908)[3]. The German play had its premiere in 1877.
This play's title not to be confused with the 21st century German singing duo called Hasemanns Töchter
The German play was in turn translated into Dutch by E.S. Culp ()[] as a comedy in four acts called De Dochters van Haseman
Hasemanns Töchter was turned into a German silent film by Heinrich Bolten-Baeckers in 1920[4].
Volkert J. Nobel (ed.). 1968. Verdwenen water, gewonnen melk (Westfries Genootschap
Archivering)pp. 58-66[5]
Facsimile version of the manuscript of Hasemann's Töchter: "Original-Volksstück mit Gesang in 4 Acten von Adolf L'Arronge", with music by Carl Millöcker, Lewy, 1877, Google E-book[6]
William Grange. 2006. Historical Dictionary of German Theater. Scarecrow Press: pp. 154-5 [7]
