The Talk of the Town is an extremely popular title in the arts.

Often used for plays (e.g. a 1896 comedy by by A.E. Drinkwater, a 1905 musical by Seymour Hicks, a 2005 musical comedy by Ginny Redington and Tom Dawes and a 2012 play by Emma Donoghue), films, novels and short stories, musical pieces and other works of art and entertainment, including venues (especially night clubs). For a partial listing, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk_of_the_Town.

Below we list only plays by this title performed in South Africa

The title has also been used in South Africa, eg, for Fred Khumalo's collection of short stories, published by Kwela Books in 2019.

The Talk of the Town by Albert Edwin Drinkwater (1851–1923)[]

The original text

Also known as The Talk of the Town, or Agnes Bramber, it was first performed as The Talk of the Town in Cork on 4 December, 1896 and as The Talk of the Town, or Agnes Bramber in Bath.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1905: Performed as The Talk of the Town by the Sass-Nelson Musical Comedy Company in the Opera House, Cape Town, in February, featuring William Cromwell and Chrissie Leonard.

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: p.422

Allardyce Nicoll. 1975. A History of English Drama 1660-1900: Late 19th Century Drama 1850-1900 Cambridge University Press: p. 351 [1]

https://www.playscripts.com/play/2116#productions

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

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/oct/08/talk-of-the-town-review

https://www.emmadonoghue.com/stage/the-talk-of-the-town.html

Go to ESAT Bibliography