Das Friedens-feyer

("The peace festival") A German play in two acts, with songs, performed in Cape Town in 1803.

Performance history in South Africa

A play announced as Das Friedens-feyer was first performed in German in the African Theatre, Cape Town on 12 March 1803 by Het Hoogduitsche Gezelschap van het Liefhebbery Theater with Die Ueberrasschung (Stephanie).

Bosman (1928. p. 79) suggests the spelling may actually have been either Die Freidensfeier or Das Friedensfeuer , and that it was a work by an unknown (French?) author. He suggests that the play had been translated into Dutch as Het Vredensfeest by Johann André (Arend Simonszoon Fokke) in 1802 (a play which deals with the Treaty of Amiens signed between France and England in 1802). Of course it may be exactly the opposite, i.e. that Johann André's Dutch translation had in fact been translated into German by the company and performed in Cape Town.

Another possibility is that the play produced in Cape Town was infact Die Friedensfeyer, oder Die unvermuthete Wiederkunft ("The peace Festival, or The unsuspected return"), a well-known two-act German comedy for children by Christian Felix Weisse (1726–1804), with music by Johann André (1741–1799). This had been published in 1779 in the fifth volume of Weisse's children's journal Der Kinderfreund ("The Children's Friend"). In this case of course, it is unlikely that it would have been the play translated by Johann André, since the play greatly pre-dates the events recounted in the Dutch play.