La Maison en Loterie
La Maison en Loterie ("The house raffle") is a one act comedy by Jean Baptiste Radet (1752-1830)[1]and Louis-Benoît Picard (1769-1828)[2],
Contents
The original text
First performed on 8 December, 1817, in the Théâtre Royal de l'Odéon, Paris.
Picard and Radet are often mentioned, singly or together, as additional authors of the English text.
Translations and adaptations
Adapted into English as The Lottery Ticket and The Lawyer's Clerk is a farce in one act by Samuel Beazley (1786–1851)[3], with attribution to Radet and/or Picard. (For instance a version published in New York and Philadelphia by Turner and Fisher [ca. 1830], is listed in the HathiTrust Digital Library as by Beazley as well as both French authors.)[4]
The shortened English title, The Lottery Ticket, is often found.
The Beazley version was first Performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in December 1826. First published as The Lottery Ticket and The Lawyer's Clerk, with no author mentioned, by C. Chapple in 1827.
There is also a later one act farce, entitled The Lottery Ticket, or The Lawyers's Clerk , credited to John Baldwin Buckstone (1802-1879), and published by Samuel French (No CXXXVII in the series The Minor Drama, 1880). It may possibly have been an adaptation by Buckstone of Beazley's original, but it is more likely that this was simply a wrong attribution by the publishers, since no play by this name appears in any list of Buckstone's many works. The Harvard Library catalogue entry[5] on the Samuel French text addresses this anomaly as follows: "Attribution: by J.B. Buckstone. ... Author / Creator: Beazley, Samuel, 1786-1851...Acting copy. An adaptation of La Maison en Loterie by Picard and Radet. Wrongly attributed to John Baldwin Buckstone."
(See also Hathi Trust Digital Library catalogue entry[6] and Caliban Book Shop website[7])
Performance history in South Africa
1846: First performed as The Lottery Ticket, or the Lawyer's Clerk Cape Town by the All the World's a Stage on Friday, 4 September, with The Brigand (Planché) and The Original (Morton).
1855: Performed as The Lottery Ticket in the "Elegant Drawing Room Theatre" in the Commercial Rooms, Cape Town, on Thursday 26 July 1855 by Sefton Parry as part of his farewell performance, after a short visit en route to Australia. Also done were A Phenomenon in a Smock Frock (Brough) and Buried Alive, or The Visit to Japan (M'Pherson).
1857: Performed as The Lottery Ticket by Sefton Parry and company in the Harrington Street Theatre, Cape Town, on 3 November, with Parry in the star role of "Wormwood". Also part of the programme were The Maid and the Magpie, or Which is the Thief? (Pocock) and a performance on the "nautical hornpipe" by Mr Gough.
1858: Performed on 6 April as The Lottery Ticket in the Harrington Street Theatre by Sefton Parry and his company, along with a reading of the ballad The Celebrated History of Alonzo the Brave and the Fair Imogen (Lewis), a performance of The Flying Dutchman (Fitzball) and a song sung by J.E.H. English.
1858: Performed as The Lottery Ticket in the Harrington Street Theatre, as part of a programme of songs and impersonations put on there by J.E.H. English in July. (English apparently in the role of "Wormwood" in this case.)
1861: Performed as The Lottery Ticket, or the Lawyer's Clerk by Sefton Parry and company in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town on 10 June, with Green Bushes (Buckstone)
1861: Performed as The Lottery Ticket, or the Lawyer's Clerk by Sefton Parry and company in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town on 13 June, along with London Assurance (Boucicault) and a "Fan Dance" by Miss Powell.
1867: Performed as The Lottery Ticket by Le Roy and company in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town on 2 December, along with The Lady of Lyons (Bulwer-Lytton), a song ("The Death of Nelson") by D'Arcy Read and a "Pas Seul" by Miss Clara.
1867: Performed, under the patronage of Governor Wodehouse, as The Lottery Ticket by Le Roy and company in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town on 5 December, along with The Snake in the Grass (Taylor), and a new dance by Miss Clara.
1874: Performed as The Lottery Ticket by Disney Roebuck and company in the Mutual Hall, Cape Town on 13 February, along with All that Glitters is not Gold, or The Factory Girl ().
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Beazley
https://archive.org/stream/lotteryticketan00picagoog#page/n4/mode/2up
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Radet
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis-Beno%C3%AEt_Picard
http://id.lib.harvard.edu/aleph/002662175/catalog
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001426280
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/012435957
Library of Congress Internet Archive[8]
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, 1928. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel I: 1652-1855. Pretoria: J.H. de Bussy. [9]: pp. 415, 433
F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.59, 63, 69, 97, 121, 231, 311, 313
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011207781]
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