Lilla Wilde

Lilla Wilde was an actress active in South Africa and Australia in the late 1880s and early 1890s.

Also referred to as Miss Wilde.

Biography

Married to the actor Albert Lucas, who also performed in South Africa.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

She was initially employed by Edgar Perkins as a leading actress for of one his companies in the North of the country, but when the company disbanded in 1891, she joined a scratch company performing in the Vaudeville Theatre, Cape Town. The season of plays she appeared in on this coccasion included The Idler (Chambers), The Silver King (Jones and Herman), Mr Barnes of New York (Gunter/Collier-Edwards) and Forget-me-Not (Merivale and Grove).

According to D.C. Boonzaier (1923) she was a fine actress, but he also mentions that, possibly because of the Cape Town public's indifference to so-called "scratch companies", the season in the Vaudeville Theatre was not well supported, nor were productions she and her husband later staged. In fact Boonzaier mentions an intended performance of a few one act plays in the Claremont Town Hall which did not get one patron.

Her husband died in the early 20th century, and she soon after returned to England to continue her career there.

Sources

D.C. Boonzaier, 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1932. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.391-2

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