David Garrick

David Garrick is a comic play by T.W. Robertson[1] (1829-1871).

The original play

A play about the famous 18th-century actor and theatre manager, David Garrick[2] (1717-1779). The play was written in 1864 and premiéred at the Prince of Wales Theater in Birmingham, where it was successful enough to be moved to the Haymarket Theatre in London, on 30 April 1864.

A 1923 book, Public Speaking Today, recommends it for performance by high school students alongside The Importance of Being Earnest and The Rivals.

Translations and adaptations

The 1907 musical The Beauty of Bath (Hicks and Hamilton) was loosely based on this work.

Performances in South Africa

1873: The first play done by Disney Roebuck when he set out to tour the Western and Eastern Cape Provinces with his company in 1873, it opened his first season in the concert hall of the Mutual Building in Cape Town, on 26 November with Perfection (Bayly) as afterpiece.

1875: Performed in the Bijou Theatre, Cape Town, by Disney Roebuck and company on 19 August with as Miss Eily O'Connor (Byron).

1929: It was one of the plays performed by a West End theatre company from London, led by actor-manager Gerald Lawrence, which toured South Africa and Rhodesia, putting on a portfolio of five plays. The tour played in venues owned by African Theatres Ltd. and started in Johannesburg on 1st April 1929 and finished in Cape Town on 3rd October.