Betsy Baker!, or Too Attentive by Half

Betsy Baker!, or Too Attentive by Half is a farce in one act by John Maddison Morton (1812-1854)[1].

The original text

First performed at the Royal Princess's Theatre, London in 1850 and published by Duncombe and Company, London and Samuel French.

1859: Performed on 1 February Cape Town Dramatic Club, in the Cape Town Theatre in Harrington street, featuring miss Annie Rowlands as "Betsy", with Not a Bad Judge, or Lavater, the Physiognomist (Planché)

1860: Performed on 12 November by the Cape Town Dramatic Club, in the Cape Town Theatre in Harrington street, with the professionals Sefton Parry and Fraser and featuring miss Annie Rowlands as "Betsy" in her "farewell to the stage". Also performed was Charles II, or The Wags of Wapping (Ryan?).

1861: Performed as Betsy Baker, or Too Attentive by Half by the company of Sefton Parry in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, on 5 September, with The Stranger (Kotzebue/Thompson/Sheridan).

1865: Performed as Betsy Baker by the Valorous Amateurs (amateur players from H.M.S. Valorous) in the Garrison Theatre, Cape Town, on 17 November, with Michael Erle, the Maniac Lover (Wilks) and Ben Bolt (Johnstone).

1867: Performed as Betsy Baker by "Le Roy's Original Company" in the Theatre Royal in Harrington Street, with The French Spy (Haynes?).

1868: Performed as Betsy Baker by the Lanarkshire Dramatic Club (amateur players from the 99th Regiment) in the Garrison Theatre, Cape Town, on 23 April, with Bombastes Furioso (Rhodes), as "an Officers Performance in aid of the Club".

1875: Performed as Betsy Baker by the Disney Roebuck Company in the Bijou Theatre, Cape Town, on 13 July, with a play listed as Ruin (most probably The Road to Ruin by Holcroft) and Royalists and Republicans (Anon?).

1876: Performed as Betsy Baker by the Disney Roebuck Company in the Athenaeum Hall, Cape Town, on 9 Septemberwith Under the Gaslight (Daly/Hazlewood) and Little Don Giovanni (Byron).

1877: Performed as Betsy Baker, or Too Attentive by Half by the Disney Roebuck Company in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, on 13 November, with Arrah-na-Pogue (Boucicault).

1877: Performed as Betsy Baker, or Too Attentive by Half by the Disney Roebuck Company in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, on 15 November, with The Hunchback (Knowles).