Un Secret

A French drama in three acts by Narcisse Fournier and Auguste Jean François Arnould

The original text

It was 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 as Het Geheim 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.

Sources

F.C.L. Bosman , 1980: pp. 443-4, 452

Facsimile version of the French text of 1840 (Google eBook)[1]

Louis B. Petit,Catalogus Der Bibliotheek Van de Maatschappij Der Nederlandsche Letterkunde Te Leiden, (Part 2): p. 78 (Google eBook)[2]

J.A. Worp, Geschiedenis van het drama en van het tooneel in Nederland. Deel 2.P. 431[3]

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