The Toothaches

The Toothaches is a farce by an anonymous author apparently performed in Cape Town in October of 1872.

The original text

Nothing has yet been found of a play by this name, but since it is accompanied by the well-known Christy-style skit The Nervous Cures, this is probably another such skit, possibly even devised by the performers themselves. If not, it could be a version of (or reference to) any one of the following one-act farces:

The Tooth-ache, or, Mistakes of a Morning ("a petit comedy, in one act") by John Bray (Published by M.Carey, Philadelphia, 1814). Described as "a petit comedy, in one act : a free translation from the French", it was also known simply as either Mistakes of a Morning or Toothache

Tooth-ache, or The Prince and the Chimney-sweeper (Anon., 1850, published as Volume 55 in T.H. Lacy's series English and American drama of the nineteenth century: English.).

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1872: A play called The Toothaches (no author named) was performed in Cape Town during October by an unnamed (garrison?) company, as part of an evening of musical and dramatic entertainment in aid of a new bell for St Mary's Cathedral. Probably taking place in the Catholic Hall (formerly known as the St Aloysius Hall), the programme for the evening also included The Happy Man (Lover) and The Nervous Cures (Brown and Norton).

Sources

Facsimile version of The Tooth-ache, or, Mistakes of a Morning (1814)[1]

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

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