Joseph Ashman
Mr Joseph Ashman (18**-19**) was a performer and producer.
His own company was also referred to as the Joseph Ashman Group or simply the Ashman Group
Contents
Biography
Little is known of his personal life, but he was described as a fine actor, most probably born and trained in England. He was active in Cape Town between 19894 and 1916, part of the time as an actor for Leonard Rayne.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
A member of the Chambers Theatre Company in Cape Town in 1890, for which he appeared in plays such as The Bells of Haslemere and In the Ranks.
In 1894 the "Ashman Group" put on a short season in Cape Town's Opera House, consisting of Francillon (Dumas), Therese (Anon) and Sunlight and Shadow (R.C. Carton). Hereafter we find occasional references to Ashman, e.g. in 1900 when he did a production of The Cuckoo (Charles H. Brookfield after Décoré by Meilhac) at the Opera House Cape Town, and in early 1905 when he appeared in Leonard Rayne's production of Charley's Aunt (Thomas) in the same theatre. On the 30th April, 1906 he and Leonard Rayne appeared together as the two brothers in The Corsican Brothers (Dumas/Boucicault) at the Opera House. His final appearance in Cape Town was apparently in Who's Brown? (Wyatt) at the Opera House, again for Leonard Rayne.
Sources
D.C. Boonzaier. 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1923. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)
F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp. 390-391, 400, 408, 422, 425, 427.
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