Wheeler Theatre Company
Founded in Cape Town in May 1886 by impressario Ben Wheeler (Benjamin, "the Gov'nor") and his son Frank Wheeler, two actor managers who focussed on musical comedy or comic opera which included farce, minstrel programmes, negro absurdity.
They came from Australia??**/England??** , to become among the foremost theatrical managers in South Africa in the period before the Anglo-Boer war.
In 1886 Luscombe Searelle was with the company for a year. Among other venues, they used the Good Hope Theatre and the Theatre Royal in Burg Street for their shows. The Hawtrey Comedy Company performed Charley's Aunt under the Wheeler Theatre Company management at the Good Hope Theatre in 18**
In 1895 they brought out W.J. Holloway of the Lyceum, with a theatrical company, to do a series of Shakespeare plays at the Standard Theatre , Johannesburg. The plays included Othello, Twelfth Night, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice and School for Scandal.
Sources
Bosman, 1980,
Bryant, 1979
Fletcher, 1994,
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