The Money Spinner

The Money Spinner is a comedy in two acts by Arthur Wing Pinero (1855-1934)[].

The original text

A play about "Millicent Boycott", a lady skilled at gambling called "The Moneyspinner", and her efforts to use her skills to save her husband from prison after he had embezzled money.

First performed at Prince's Theatre, Manchester, 5 November 1880 and at St James's Theatre, London, on 8 January 1881.

Published by Samuel French.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1886: Performed by Madame Pearmain and her company in the Theatre Royal, Burg Street, Cape Town, as part of a season of plays she put on there in the last quarter of the year. Emily Levettez played "Milicent Boycott", a role she had created for the first performance of the play in London, according to Boonzaier (1923).

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.203-205

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