The Floating Beacon, or The Norwegian Wreckers
The Floating Beacon, or The Norwegian Wreckers is a nautical melodrama in two acts by Edward Fitzball (1792–1873)[1]. The play is credited to Edward Ball in some versions.
Contents
The original text
According to the author, the text was apparently influenced by a summary he had read of The Light Tower, a German tragedy by an unnamed author (Burwick, 2015: pp. 220-221)[2].
Fitzball's own play was first performed to great success in the Surrey Theatre, London, on 19 April, 1824. The text was printed by and for J. Lowndes in 1824.
Translations and adaptations
South African productions
1833: Performed in Cape Town in the African Theatre by the All the World's a Stage (as The Floating Beacon) on 13 July, with The Six Simpletons, or The Press Gang (a "ballet dance"), The First of April (Boaden) and a new pantomime, Clown and Goose, performed by Mr Charles West.
Sources
Frederick Burwick. 2015. British Drama of the Industrial Revolution. Cambridge University Press[3]
Larry Stephen Clifton. 1993. The Terrible Fitzball: The Melodramatist of the Macabre. Popular Press[4]
F.C.L. Bosman, 1928. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel I: 1652-1855. Pretoria: J.H. de Bussy. [5]: pp. 226-7
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