The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales[1], is a collection of 24 stories that run to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343–1400) [2]
The stories have often been adapted for stage performance and have been the thematic source of a number of original plays.
Among those performed in South Africa have been the following (for details of the play and its South African performances, click on the title to go to the particular entry).
Contents
Canterbury Tales musical by Hill, Hawkins and Coghill
A British musical, with the music written by Richard Hill [3] and John Hawkins, and the lyrics by Nevill Coghill [4].
Original text
It was originally presented at the Oxford Playhouse in 1964, conceived and directed by Martin Starkie [5] and written by Nevill Coghill and Martin Starkie. It was expanded into a full length musical and presented at the Phoenix Theatre, London on 21 March 1968 and ran for 2,080 performances. (Wikipedia [6])
The musical took five tales from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and told them with song and humour. These were: The Miller's Tale; The Nun's Priest's Tale; The Steward's Tale; The Merchant's Tale; and The Wife of Bath's Tale. In addition, Chaucer's Prologue and Epilogue were spoken.
Performance history in South Africa
1970: Staged by the JODS in the Johannesburg Civic Theatre, directed by Daniel Thorndike, with Phillip Boucher (Host), Rigby Foster (Knight), Ian Hamilton (Squire), Joey van Rooyen (Prioress), Sheila Ferguson (Nun), Hugh Rouse (Priest), David Chrichton (Cook), Ian Kemm (Friar), Marjorie Gordon (Wife of Bath), Kerry Jordan (Miller), George Korelin (Steward), Billy Boyle (Clerk of Oxford), Gabriel Bayman (Merchant), Louis Ife (Chaucer) and others. Musical direction by Thomas Erskine and choreography by Geoffrey Sutherland.
The Canterbury Tales opera by Erik Chisholm
Original text
Performance history in South Africa
The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales (adaptation, 2005), a stage adaptation of a collection of Chaucer's stories from The Canterbury Tales by Darryl Nel. It is a contemporary trilingual production in English, Afrikaans and Xhosa, and also features music performed by the cast and a live band.
Original text
This adaptation was commissioned by the Grahamstown Foundation for the National Schools Festival in 2005. The production featured four of Chaucer's Tales: The Wife of Bath's Tale, The Franklin's Tale, The Miller's Tale and The Pardoner's Tale.
Performance history in South Africa
The production was produced by DSN Productions in collaboration with the First Physical Theatre Company Skills Programme and the Standard Bank National Schools Festival in July 2005. It was performed in the Guy Butler Theatre with the following cast: Anton Calitz, Wesley Hayter, Luks Hlungula, Danielle Kellermann, Masasa Mbangeni, Darryl Nel, Andrew Warneke, David van Wyk, and the First Physical Theatre Company Skills Programme dancers.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Canterbury_Tales
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Chaucer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canterbury_Tales_%28musical%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hill_%28musician%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevill_Coghill
JODS theatre programme, 1970.
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