The Charcoal Burner or the Dropping Well of Knaresborough

The Charcoal Burner or the Dropping Well of Knaresborough is a play in two (or three) acts by George Almar (fl. 1830-1840)[1]

The original text

First performed at the Surrey Theatre, London, on Wednesday, December 28th, 1832 and published by London, John Dicks, London, in the same year as a play in three acts. Also published (now as a play in two acts) by William Spencer, Boston, in the 1858, and by Samuel French in 1864.

The original text

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1859: The only reference to a 19th century South African performance of The Misanthrope in F.C.L. Bosman (1980, pp. 124-5) is a reference to a production by Charles Fraser in the Cape Town Theatre on 11 July, apparently featuring a play he refers to as The Misanthrope, or the Dropping Well of Knavesboro' by an unnamed author. (Bosman suggests it may have been the Ozell version. However this is most likely an error, and the play being referred to is probably The Charcoal Burner or the Dropping Well of Knaresborough by George Almar, performed sometime between 1835 and 1840.) Also performed that evening was My Valet and I (Wilks).

Sources

Facsimile version of the Spencer text, Hathi Trust Digital Library [2]

Online Books by George Almar, The Online Books Page [3]

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: pp.203-205

Go to ESAT Bibliography