Liberty Hall

Liberty-Hall, or A Test of Good Fellowship is a comic opera in two acts by Charles Dibdin the Elder (1745 - 1814)[1]

Also found as Liberty Hall

The original text

First performed at the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane, London, on 8 February, 1785. First published by G. Kearsley,1785.

One reviewer ("Baker"), impressed with the production, stated that "(A) hint for the plot is taken from Fielding's The Intriguing Chambermaid"[2], referring to the two-act comedy first performed at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane in 1750, and in its turn taken from a French play by Regnard.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1895: Performed as Liberty Hall by Edward Sass and his Gaiety Company, under the auspices of the Wheeler Company, as part of a season of eight plays with which they toured the cities, inter alia appearing at the Opera House, Cape Town, from 1 June.

1916: Performed Liberty Hall at the Standard Theatre, Johannesburg, featuring Florence Creagh

Sources

"Liberty-Hall" on Great Writers Inspire, Oxford University [3]

http://www.eighteenthcenturydrama.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Details/HL_LA_mssLA688

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

Rand Daily Mail (various issues)

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 1932. (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.401

Go to ESAT Bibliography