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).

There is mention of what appear to be three related versions of the basic plot:

Sullivan, a three-act French comedy by Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier de Mélésville (also known as "Mélesville" or "A.H.J. Duveyrier", 1787-1865)[3]. Based on the short story Garrick Médecin[4] by Joseph Bouchardy (printed in Le Monde Dramatique, 1835/1836), which relates an incident from the life of Garrick. The play was first played at Paris, in the Théâtre-Français, November 11, 1852 and is often referred to as "Sullivan (David Garrick)".

Sullivan, an Italian comedy in three acts (often referred to as Sullivan ("David Garrick"), Sullivan, David Garrick or Sullivan - (David Garrick)) by Tommaso Salvini (1829-1916) . This was performed internationally by Salvini as one of his star roles between 1870 and 1890. The Italian text was also translated into English ("Expressly for the American Tour of Signor Salvini and His Italian Company") by Maurice Grau and published in in one volume in both Italian and English in 1873 by G.F. Nesbitt & Co., printers, New York and again in 1880 in Italian by Seer's printing establishment, New York). It is often ascribed to Salvini as author as well, but no text actually confirms this and it is highly likely that this was simply an Italian translation by Salvini of the Mélesville text.

David Garrick by T.W. Robertson (1829-1871) was - by Robertson's own admission - based on the Mélésville play. According to his Preface to David Garrick, his novelization of his own play of the same name), Robertson mentions that Duveyrier's play called Sullivan was performed at St James's Theatre, London, by a company of French comedians, where he saw and liked it, and then wrote his own English play in 1864, which he called David Garrick.

Written in 1864 Robertson's play 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. Published in London by S.O. Beeton, 1865.

As seems to have been the case with Salvini, the "Garrick" became a popular virtuoso role for Disney Roebuck, who performed it often, all over the world. In fact the value of Robertson's play is sometimes ascribed to Roebuck's interpretation of it, rather than to the text's inherent merits.

As a measure of its popularity, a 1923 book, Public Speaking Today, recommends David Garrick for performance by high school students alongside The Importance of Being Earnest and The Rivals.

Translations and adaptations

David Garrick. A Love Story by T.W. Robertson, is a "novelette expanded from the play" (i.e. Robertson's own play of the same title), which had been adapted from A.H.J. Duveyrier's play Sullivan

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

Performances in South Africa

1873: It was 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 Mutual Hall (i.e. the concert hall of the Mutual Building) in Cape Town, playing on 26-29 November with Perfection, or The Lady of Munster (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.