The Hunchback

The Hunchback is a play in five acts by James Sheridan Knowles (1784-1862)[1]

The original text

First performed at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden in 1832, with Fanny Kemble, Charles Kemble and Knowles himself in the cast. Published in London the same year by E. Moxon.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1861: Performed by Sefton Parry and his company, on 27 May in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, with Mr & Mrs Peter White (Raymond).

1861: Performed by Sefton Parry and his company, on 6 June in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, with Stage Struck, or The Loves of Augustus Portarlington and Celestine Beverly (Dimond).

1862: Performed by Sefton Parry and his company, on 2 May in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, a benefit for John Howard. Also performed was A Dead Shot (Buckstone).

June 17, 1862: Produced by Sefton Parry at the New Theatre in Port Elizabeth. The production in Port Elizabeth was described as being staged with “beautiful new scenery by Mr Cooper” and “elegant Elizabethan costumes". After The Hunchback, Miss Lizzie Powell danced the celebrated Varsovienne, a slow, graceful dance in ¾ time with an accented downbeat in alternate measures. The dance originated circa 1850 in Warsaw, Poland. The dance was followed by the "screaming farce” of A Kiss in the Dark.

1864: A reading of the play performed by Thomas Brazier, as one of his series of Dramatic Readings held every alternate Monday in the Cape Town City Hall between 4 July and 7 November. (Other plays in the series of seven works read were Bulwer-Lytton's The Lady of Lyons and five plays by Shakespeare: Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, King John and Much Ado about Nothing.)

1867: Performed as The Hunchback by the Le Roy and Duret company in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town on 23 December ("by special request"), with a dance by Miss Clara and John Wopps (Suter) as afterpiece.

1868: Scenes from the play were performed as part of a "Musical and Dramatic Entertainment" by the Le Roy and Duret company in the Commercial Exchange, Cape Town on 27 January. The evening was under the patronage Governor Wodehouse, and the programme also included songs, dances, and scenes read and performed from Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare), King John (Shakespeare), The Lady of Lyons (Bulwer-Lytton) and A Rough Diamond (Buckstone).

1876: Performed as The Hunchback by Disney Roebuck and his company in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, on 3 and 5 October.

1877: Performed as The Hunchback by Disney Roebuck and his company in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, on 8 November, with Good for Nothing (Buckstone), and a ballad sung by Miss Wynne.

1877: Performed by the Disney Roebuck Company in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, on 15 November, with Betsy Baker, or Too Attentive by Half (Morton).