Menschenhass und Reue

("Misanthropy and Repentance") A German drama in five acts by August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue.

The original text

The original German produced in 1789–90 and published by Himburg in Berlin, 1790. It was one of the most popular German plays of the first half of the 19th century, and is claimed to have been be the prototype of the so-called "Rührstück" or "Melodrama".

Translations and adaptations

Translated into Dutch as Menschenhaat en Berouw ("Misanthropy and Repentance") by Jan Steven van Esveldt Holtrop.

Translated into English by Benjamin Thompson as The Stranger, revised for the stage by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. First performed in this version at the Drury Lane Theatre, London in 1798.

Performance history in South Africa

1819: Announced for performance in Dutch as Menschenhaat en Berouw in the African Theatre, Cape Town on 5 June. However it was postponed, taking place 12 June 1819, with Uilenspiegel (Von Kotzebue) as afterpiece.

1825: Performed in English as The Stranger on 11 June by the English Theatricals in the African Theatre, Cape Town with 20 percent, or My Father as afterpiece.

1834: Performed in Dutch in Stellenbosch on 26 July, with De Man Naar de Klok (Von Hippel).

1855: Performed in English as The Stranger by G.V. Brooke and company in the Garrison Theatre, Cape Town, on Tuesday 9 January 1855, with Mr Brooke, Miss Cathcart, and a number of amateurs from the Cape. The afterpiece was The Angel of the Attic (J.M. Morton) as afterpiece.