Sefton Parry

(18**-18**??) Actor, Manager-Producer. Born in England. He arrived in the Cape in 1855, ostensibly for a stopover on the way home to England from Australia, where he had been idolised. In his first performances in 1855, supported by the Garrison Amateur Company, he definitely didn’t disappoint, and received a rapturous welcome, which persuaded him to stay at the Cape a little longer. Indeed, he postponed his return to England a number of times and gave some more performances, working with local amateur groups, notably the Cape Town Dramatic Club, but left after two months. However he returned in 1857 with a professional British theatre-company. When he broke away from the Cape Town Dramatic Club in 1960 to form the Alfred Dramatic Club as a professional venture, he effectively established the first regular professional theatre-company in South Africa. (After the success of The Irish Tutor in 1860, visiting Prince Alfred bestowed his name upon them, and henceforth they were known as the Royal Alfred Dramatic Club.) In the same year Parry had the Theatre Royal built in Harrington Street, Cape Town. It opened on 9 August 1860. From 1861 till 1863 Parry and his company utilized its stage. He returned to London in 1863 and the theatre was closed in 1865**.

Sources

See Du Toit, 1988; Bosman, 1928; Bosman, 1980; Fletcher, 1994 [TH, JH]

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