Love and the Hyphen

Love and the Hyphen is a farce in three acts by Stephen Black (1879-1931).

The original text

A farce about a number of social climbing Capetonians, from all walks of life.

First performed at the Tivoli Theatre in Darling Street, Cape Town, on 16 November, 1908, the play was an immediate success. It was reworked in 1910 and often performed across the country till the 1930s. Among the venues used were the Standard Theatre and His Majesty's Theatre in Johannesburg, and the Tivoli Theatre in Cape Town.

Only published in 1984, when it was included in Stephen Black: Three Plays, a collection of Black’s plays edited by Stephen Gray, also containing Helena's Hope, Ltd and Van Kalabas Does His Bit (Ad Donker 1984).

Translations and adaptations

In February of 1911, what Boonzaier (1923) calls "a weak and attenuated" variation on the play by Black (called Japie's Courtship and written by an author calling himself "Mowbray-Kloof") was produced in the Opera House, Cape Town - but to little success it seems.To what extent it is actually an adaptation of the earlier play, rather than an original work simply based on the theme of Black's play, is unknown, as the text seems to be lost.

Performance history in South Africa

1908: Performed at the Tivoli Theatre in Darling Street, Cape Town, from

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, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.428-435.

Various entries in the NELM catalogue, including:

A list of characters for a production at His Majesty's Theatre, date unknown. (NELM: [Collection: GRAY, Stephen]: 2008. 49. 2. 8. 4. 4.

Theatre programme for a production at the Standard Theatre, date unknown. (NELM: [Collection: GRAY, Stephen]: 2008. 49. 2. 8. 4. 7.

A photocopy of caricatures by D.C. Boonzaier of the cast while it was being performed at the Tivoli Theatre , from The Cape of 20.11.1908. (NELM [Collection: FLETCHER, Jill]: 2005. 75. 19. 60. 8).

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