Le Contrôleur des Wagons-lits

Le Contrôleur des Wagons-lits ("the sleeping car controller") is a French comedy in three acts by by Alexandre Charles Auguste Bisson (1848-1912)[1].

Also found as Le Controleur des Wagons-lits and Le Controleur des Wagons-Lits in some sources.

The original text

The French play was originally performed on at the Théâtre des Nouveautés, in Paris on 11 March, 1898

Translations and adaptations

Translated and adapted into English as On and Off by an unnamed author. Performed at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, on 1 December, 1898[2].

In 1913 a silent film called Le Contrôleur des wagons-lits[3] was made of the play, the script by Georges Monca (1867-1939)[4] directed by Charles Prince (1872-1933)[5].

In 1935 filmed as Le contrôleur des wagons-lits[6], directed by Richard Eichberg (Released in English as Inspector of the Red Cars.)

Performance history in South Africa

1904: Performed in English as On and Off by the Le Roy-Duret Company in the Good Hope Theatre, Cape Town, in April by a company under the management of the Wheeler Brothers, featuring George Giddens.

Sources

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Bisson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Brougham_Farnie

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Contr%C3%B4leur_des_wagons-lits_(film,_1913)

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Prince

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Monca

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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