The Thimble Rig!
The Thimble Rig! is a farce in one act by John Baldwin Buckstone (1802-1879)[1].
(Also referred to simply as Thimble Rig or Thimble-rig.)
Contents
The original text
The title refers to a variation of the "three card trick", a sleight-of-hand swindling game in which the operator palms a pellet or pea while appearing to cover it with one of three thimblelike cups[2].
First published in London at the National Acting Drama Office in 1837. It was performed on 3 October, 1844, at the Haymarket Theatre, to no great acclaim.
Translations and adaptations
Performance history in South Africa
1851: Performed as Thimble Rig in the Garrison Theatre by the Amateur Company on Wednesday 3 December, as afterpiece to Caesar de Bazan, or Love and Honour (Webster and Boucicault). The performance was in aid of "(S)ufferers by the Kaffir War" (i.e. the border war taking place on the eastern border of the Cape Province).
Sources
https://books.google.co.za/books/about/The_Thimble_Rig.html?id=Pu_BnQEACAAJ&redir_esc=y
The Literary Gazette and Journal of the Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, &c (Saturday 5 October, 1844). London, W.A. Scripps: p. 645 (Google E-book)[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Baldwin_Buckstone
F.C.L. Bosman, 1928. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel I: 1652-1855. Pretoria: J.H. de Bussy. [4]: pp. 401-3, 420
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