Louise Balfe
Louise Balfe was a singer and performer
Also found as Miss Balfe
Contents
Biography
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
She was part of a new contingent performers that joined the Disney Roebuck company in mid-August of 1876. She was considered the "playgoer's favourite" of the time, and described as being a fine and lively and a talented singer. Among her many roles, she appeared as the leading characters in such burlesques as Little Don Giovanni and A Young Rip van Winkle, a "bewitching" "Rosalie" in Nemesis and the "London Waif" in Under the Gaslight. She was often paired with Mr Elton in the lighter pieces.
It appears that she left the company while on tour in the Eastern Cape, when she and Disney Roebuck had a quarrel of some kind.
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 1923. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)
F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.347-351, 358
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