The Cricket on the Hearth, styled "A Fairy Tale of Home", is a novella by Charles Dickens, published in 1845.

Translations and stage adaptations

It has been dramatized numerous times in various languages and was for a time more popular as a performed piece that A Christmas Carol.

Below are some of the dramatizations seen in South Africa.

Dot by Dion Boucicault

An adaptation of the novella by Dion Boucicault, including a number of Shakespearian characters for example, it was licensed for Ben Webster at the Adelphi on 11 April 1859, but was first produced at the Winter Garden, New York, on September 14th, 1859. The London production only took place on 14 April 1862 in the Adelphi Theatre.

Sometimes found with the title Dot, or The Cricket on the Hearth.

Performance history in South Africa

1861: Performed as The Cricket on the Hearth in the Theatre Royal by Sefton Parry and company, on 3 June. This uncredited may have been Boucicault's version.

1875: Performed as Dot, or The Cricket on the Hearth (and credited to Boucicault) in the Bijou Theatre, Cape Town by Captain Disney Roebuck's company on 9 April, with Aunt Charlotte's Maid (Morton)