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 (the) 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 by the author and his company on 3 October, 1844, at the Haymarket Theatre, though apparently 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[3]" (i.e. the British colonial war against the Xhosa being fought on the eastern border of the Cape Province in the period).
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)[4]
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. [5]: pp. 401-3, 420
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