("The Secret") According to the various sources there appear to have been a number of Dutch versions of plays by this name which have been performed in South Africa. There is some confusions in some cases about the exact text that was used.

Het Geheim by Hoffman and Solié

A Dutch version of Le Secret, a French one-act opéra based on the comedy La Femme Jalouse by François-Antoine Jolly. The libretto by François Benoît Hoffman (1760–1828) and the music by Jean-Pierre Solié (1755- 1812). It was first performed by the Opéra-Comique in the Salle Favart on 20 April 1796. Published in 1796 as a "comédie mêlée de musique" ("a comedy with music").

Translated into Dutch as Het Geheim by Pieter Gerardus Witsen Geysbeek. Published by Abraham Mars (Amsterdam), 1801.

Performances in South Africa

Sources

http://books.google.co.za/books/about/Het_geheim.html?id=holWAAAAcAAJ&redir_esc=y

Het Geheim by Christian August Vulpius (1762 – 1827)

A Dutch translation of Das Geheimnis, a German play in 5 acts by Christian August Vulpius (1762 – 1827). Published in Leipzig in 1800. (Confusingly: He also produced the French one-act opera Le Secret (Hoffman and Solié, 1796), under the title Das Geheimnis the Hoftheater, in Leipzig in 1805.)

Translated into English as The Mystery by M. Geisweiler c. 1800.

Translated into Dutch as Het Geheim by

Performances in South Africa

1855: Performed as Het Geheim on Tuesday 12 June 1855 by Door Yver Bloeit de Kunst in the Garrison Theatre, stipulated as a tragedy in five acts and credited to "the author of Rinaldini" - i.e. Vulpius). Also performed were De Helleveeg (Loosjes) and Het Groot Ballet. The evening was in support of the "Patriotic Fund" for the Crimean War. The production was possibly repeated on 28 June.

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_August_Vulpius

Kulturstiftung der Länder: Bibliothek der Deutschen Literatur - Bibliographie und Register, p. 423[1]

Facsimile of the German text of 1800 (Google eBook)[2]

F.C.L. Bosman, 1928: pp. 462-3

Het Geheim by A.H. de Bruine

A Dutch version of Un Secret, a French drama in three acts by Narcisse Fournier and Auguste Jean François Arnould, first performed at the Théâtre de Vaudeville, Paris on 14 March 1840 and published in the Magasin Théatral by Marchant, 1840.

Translated into Dutch by A.H. de Bruine and published in Amsterdam in 1840.

Productions in South Africa

F.C.L. Bosman (1980), and presumably the company, claims that the play performed by Door Yver Bloeit de Kunst was a "tragedy in five acts", which - if correct - does suggest that the play produced may not in actual fact have been the Fournier and Arnould play, but simply another version of the 5-act tragedy by Vulvius.

1867: Produced by Door Yver Bloeit de Kunst at the Theatre Royal, Cape Town on 26 June, with Uilenspiegel (Von Kotzebue).

1867: Produced by Door Yver Bloeit de Kunst at the Theatre Royal, Cape Town on 16 July, with Het Bankroet van den Schoenlapper (Martainville).

1896: Produced by Door Yver Bloeit de Kunst at the new Opera House, Cape Town on 7 July, with De Sint Nicolaas Avond, of Het Bezoek door den Schoorsteen (Kup).

1910: Produced as the last production by Door Yver Bloeit de Kunst under the leadership of the 71 year old Johan Combrink, at the Good Hope Theatre 2 June and repeated on 4 June, followed by a ballet by 16 children, accompanied by the musical corps of F.H. Boonzaier. The critic D.C. Boonzaier wrote a devastating criticism of what was apparently a ludicrous melodrama, badly presented.