Madame Duret

Madame Duret (floreat 1860s and 1870s) was a professional actress from London.

Also referred to as Mrs Marie Duret.

She apparently worked in Port Elizabeth and Cape Town between 1861 and 1871 with her husband, Mr J.H. le Roy, as one half of the Leroy and Duret or Le Roy and Duret Company. They were particularly active in the work presented by the British garrison in Cape Town.

She was generally regarded as a formidable actress and clearlty a character actress and seasoned transformationist, performing multiple roles in various plays specifically selected for her, including three characters in The French Spy, or The Wild Arab of the Desert, six in the protean farce The Actress of All Work (Oxberry) and eight in Winning a Husband (Buckstone).

For more performances by the company and Madame Duret, see Le Roy and Duret Company

[JH]

Sources

Henry Pitt Phelps.1880. Players of a Century: A Record of the Albany Stage. Albany: J. McDonough[1]

Jane Kathleen Curry. 1994. Nineteenth-century American Women Theatre Managers. Greenwood: pp. 29-30.[2]

Bosman, F.C.L., Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. 1980: pp.

P.J. du Toit, 1988

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