The Octoroon

The Octoroon is a melodrama by Dion Boucicault (1820-1890)[1].

Also known as The Octoroon, or Life in Louisiana.

The original text

A melodrama about the love between a white man and an octoroon girl, first staged in 1859 at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1866: Performed in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, on 22-23 May by the Le Roy and Duret Company.

1866: Performed in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, on 24 May by the Le Roy and Duret Company, with Bachelor's Buttons (Stirling), as a "complimentary Testimonial to the favourite artiste Mme. Duret by her Admirers".

1867: Performed by "Le Roy's Original Company" in the Theatre Royal, Harrington Street, Cape Town on 11 and 14 February, with An April Fool (Halliday and Brough).

1867: Performed by the Le Roy-Duret Company in the Harrington Street Theatre, Cape Town, on 16 February, with Mrs Green's Snug Little Business (Cheltnam) as afterpiece.

1868: Act 3 of the play performed in the old Oddfellows Hall Cape Town by the Le Roy and Duret Company on 14 May along with The Lady and the Devil (Clarence) and A Comical Countess (Brough)

1876: Performed by the company of Disney Roebuck on May 6, 1876, as the opening production of his new Theatre Royal, in Burg Street, Cape Town.

1884-5: Performed by the Henry Harper Company in the new Theatre Royal, Cape Town, as part of Henry Harper's first season as lessee and manager of the venue.

1914 - Performed at the Palladium Theatre, Johannesburg, opening on 5 October 1914. Produced by Edward Vincent, the cast included Ethel Bracewell, Stephen Scanlan, Austin Milroy, Shelagh Conway, Florence Creagh, Frank Lynne, Dick Cruikshanks, Herbert Lewis, Cecil De Lee and Martha Rowson.

Sources

Rand Daily Mail, 6 October 1914

World Drama, by Allardyce Nicoll.

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp. 204-207, 210, 221-3, 294, 322-335, 339-351, 366, 380

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