Entertainments

A specific term used to refer to annual presentations by such (mainly English, or Anglicised) institutions such as military garrisons, high schools some lodges and student associations in the 19th century.

The programmes were a mixed bag, with comic dialogues, short plays, musical turns, comic songs, tableaux, and the like often made up part of such an evening of "entertainment". On occasion they consisted of more serious literary fare and were given more suitable names, e.g. Mr Hill's Literary Entertainment of the late 1840s, Dramatic and Musical Entertainments by Mrs Greig (1851), etc.

However there is strong evidence that a similar kind of event was also prevalent among Dutch and Afrikaans communities in the 19th century, though possibly slightly more . (See also Debating societies) The Afrikaans programmes initially used the English term in parenthesis - i.e. "Entertainment" , but gradually came to employ an Afrikaans term Konsert - i.e.:"Concert" - for the same idea. In the early 20th century Konserte (in this sense) were very popular and the term was even transferred to English (e.g. the "school concert").

In the mid 1860s the Garrison Theatre versions of Dramatic Entertainments (e.g. those put on by the 1st battalion of the 9th Regiment, Cape Town), began to contain gymnastic acts as well, and were thus sometimes styled Dramatic and Gymnastic Entertainments.

(TH)

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