Whitebait at Greenwich

Whitebait at Greenwich is farce in one act by John Maddison Morton (1811-1891)[1]

In America it was apparently also performed and published under the title The Two Buzzards, or Whitebait at Greenwich.

The original text

First Performed at the Royal Adelphi Theatre, London, on Monday, November 13th, 1853.

Published in London as Lacy's Acting Edition no. 175 in the 1853, later also by Samuel French in 1860.

Later also published in America as The Two Buzzards, or Whitebait at Greenwich in Spencer's Boston Theatre 1856), in Sergel's Acting Drama in 1888 and again in Boston by W.H. Baker & Co., c1889.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1859: Performed by the Cape Town Dramatic Club and other amateurs, as part of the Great Volunteers Parade in Durbanville, Cape Town, on 6 October, with Frederick of Prussia, or The Monarch and the Mimic (Selby).

1862: Performed in Cape Town by Sefton Parry's company on 10 May in the Theatre Royal. Also on the programmes was "For the first time" The Christy Minstrels in the "Great Burlesque of Uncle Snow's Music Lesson", further accompanied by "Ten Gymnastic Acts", negro songs, and "the real Virginia Breakdown"

1868: Performed by the Lanarkshire Dramatic Club (amateur players from the 99th Regiment) in the Garrison Theatre, Cape Town, on 4 November, with A Day after the Fair (Somerset).

1875: Performed in the Bijou Theatre, Cape Town, by Disney Roebuck's company on 1 September, with as Little Emily, or The Ark on the Lands (Halliday).

1877: Performed in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, by Disney Roebuck and company on 6 November, with The Beggar's Petition, or A Father's Love and A Mother's Care (Pitt).

1878: Performed in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town on 21 June by Disney Roebuck and his company, along with a song by Miss Wynne and The Heir-at-Law (Coleman Jr).