Madame Sans-Gêne

Madame Sans-Gêne is a play by Victorien Sardou and Émile Moreau.

The original text

Set in Paris, it tells the story of Napoleon I and a laundress, Catherine Üpscher, who marries Marshal Lefebvre and becomes a Duchess.

Based on the play Madame Sans-Gêne by Victorien Sardou and Émile Moreau. Set in Paris, it tells the story of Napoleon I and a laundress, Catherine Üpscher, who marries Marshal Lefebvre and becomes a Duchess.

Translations and adaptations

Adapted as a comic opera in three acts called The Duchess of Dantzic by Henry Hamilton and Ivan Caryl. First produced in London at the Lyric Theatre in 1903, the opera ran for 236 performances. Subsequently, it enjoyed a successful New York production at Daly's Theatre and other productions around the world, and was revived in London and performed regularly by amateur theatre groups, particularly in Britain, until the 1950s.

Performance history in South Africa

1906: The Duchess of Dantzic first performed in South Africa by the Wheeler-Edwardes Gaiety Company in the Opera House, Cape Town, on 28 May, featuring Wyford Stamford and Anna Hickish.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Sans-G%C3%AAne_(play)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Duchess_of_Dantzic

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, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: p.425

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