Dear Liar

Dear Liar, by Jerome Kilty. The play is based on the longtime correspondence (April 1899 to August 1939) between British playwright Goerge Bernard Shaw and British actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell.

Translations and adaptations

Translated into Afrikaans by Rykie van Reenen as Liefste Leuenaar.

Performance history in South Africa

1961: Directed by Jerome Kilty. With Jerome Kilty and Cavada Humphrey. Kushlick-Gluckman. Intimate Theatre, Johannesburg.

1962: It was the first play presented by the Ensamble Players (Ensemble Players?). The first performance was in Somerset West, followed on 2 November in the Botha Hall, Stellenbosch and then at the Port Elizabeth City Hall, directed by Laurie van der Merwe, starring Siegfried Mynhardt and Paddy Canavan.

1963: Laurie van der Merwe was to direct the Afrikaans version, Liefste Leuenaar in March 1963.

1972: Staged at The Blue Fox, starring Diane Wilson as Mrs Patrick Campbell and Hugh Rouse as George Bernard Shaw.

1972: Dear Liar presented by Capital Theatres, produced by Peter Prowse in Cape Town (1972?), starring Frank Shelley and Diane Wilson.

1979: Presented by PACT. The production lost money.

1981: Dear Liar directed by Keith Grenville for Baxter Theatre Productions, 1981 in the Baxter Theatre. The cast: Keith Grenville, Zoë Randall.

2009: Presented at the Montecasino Theatre, directed by British director Richard Digby Day [1], starring visiting West End actors Gary Raymond [2] and Delena Kidd [3]. Also at the Theatre on the Bay in Cape Town.

Sources

Die Oosterlig, 7 November 1962.

Dear Liar programme, 1972 (?)

Tucker, 1997. 279, 371.

Barrow, Brian & Williams-Short, Yvonne 1988.

The Star, 24 March 2009.

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