La Dama Duende

La Dama Duende (lit. "The elf lady") is a Spanish comedy by Calderon (Pedro Calderón de la Barca) (1600-1681)[1].

The original text

It was first written and performed in 1629 and was published for the first time in the Primera parte de comedias de don Pedro Calderón de la Barca in 1636. The play used elements from Lope de Vega's play The Widow from Valencia (1604), but its main source was the novel El soldado Píndaro (1626) by Gonzalo Céspedes y Meneses.

Translations and adaptations

Usually translated into English as The Phantom Lady or The Fairy Lady.

The Lady and the Devil is a musical drama in two acts by William Dimond (c. 1784–1837?)[2] was apparently based in part on Calderon's play, though also borrowing something from John Till Allingham's comedy The Marriage Promise (1803)[3].

La Dama Duende was translated into Afrikaans from the Spanish by Jocelyn de Bruyn, as Kom Spook By My ("Come haunt me"). A prompt script for the production (marked "Swardt") is held in the ESAT Archive at Stellenbosch University.

It has been filmed twice, in 1919 by Studio Films in Spain (directed by José María Codina and Juan Solá Mestres) and in 1945 an adapted Spanish version of the play was filmed by Estudios San Miguel in Argentina (written by Rafael Alberti and María Teresa León, and directed by Luis Saslavsky).

Performance history in South Africa

1968: Kom Spook By My produced by CAPAB, opening in the Hofmeyr Theatre, Cape Town, on 30 March. Directed by Peter Kleinschmidt with Percy Sieff, Johan Malherbe, Lerina C. Erasmus, Christine Basson, Pieter Fourie, Glynn Day, Woutrine Theron, Dawid van der Walt. Decor and costumes by Annette Schaad. Stage manager Pieter de Swardt. This production toured the Western and Northern Cape during April and May, finishing in the H.B. Thom Theatre, Stellenbosch (2 to 4 May). It then ran at the Opera House in Port Elizabeth (20-22 May), returning via the Vallei-Kerksaal in Worcester 24 May) and the Town Hall, Malmesbury (25 May).