The Merchant of Venice
by William Shakespeare.
Performance history in South Africa
Ironically yet understandibly, given its racial theme, this play has been enormously popular in South Africa. First English performance****.
Performed by the Garrison Players in the Garrison Theatre on Wednesday 8 September 1847, with as an afterpiece My Daughter, Sir!, or A Daughter to Marry (Planché); on Friday 17 September 1847 with as afterpiece Jack Bragg (Hook) and Thurday 9 December 1847 with as afterpiece The Infant of Spain.
A significant production of this Shakespeare play was staged by the Cape Town Repertory Theatre Society as its début opened on 6 August 1920 in the Railway Institute Hall in Cape Town. The cast included most of the top amateur actors then active, and the design by S.J. Wray was the first to introduce the revolutionary ideas of Edward Gordon Craig to South Africa. In all, only eight performances were given in Cape Town and surrounds, but the production was a hit with both public and critics and managed to turn a tidy profit of £100. The first professional performance was apparently ***.
Other notable productions include PACOFS 1985, directed by Ken Leach with Richard Haines, Richard Carlsson, Malcolm Terry.
Translated into Afrikaans as Die Koopman van Venesië by D.F Malherbe ( Afrikaanse Pers Boekhandel, 1949) and first directed by Fred Engelen at the Little Theatre in Cape Town in 195*, with Pieter Bredenkamp, Louw Verwey, Hermien Dommisse, Paul Malherbe, Fred le Roux and Chris van den Berg. Costume designs by Mavis Taylor (designs also used in later productions in Antwerp.) Also done by Volksteater in 1950, directed by ** and featuring **. PACT 1969.
Also translated into Northern Sotho as Mogwebi wa Venisi by N.C. Phatudi (Published by Maskew Miller Longman, 1985), into Southern Sotho as Mohwebi wa Venisi by K.E. Ntsane (published by A.P.B. in 1961), into Setswana as Morekisi wa Venisi by M.O.M. Seboni (publised by Lovedale Press, 1961), .
Sources
Bosman, 1928: pp 396,
The Mime, 1(3), 1928.
PACOFS Drama 25 Years, 1963-1988.
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