Winning a Husband

Winning a Husband is an interlude in one act by John Baldwin Buckstone (1802-1879)[1].

Also found as Winning a Husband, or Seven's the Main in some references (possibly the title of a version used in America).

The original text

The work is also described as a burletta or a "Personation Comedietta" on occasion, and it apparently offered several transformation parts for an actress.

The only readily available reference to a production is to a performance as part of a programme "For the Benefit of Mr. and Mrs. Plumer" at the Royal Pavilion Theatre (Whitechapel Road, London) on Saturday, 14 December 1833 ("for this night only"). The play was performed "with Mrs. Cramer Plumer in seven characters", and played along with an adaptation of The Merry Wives of Windsor ("based on a work by William Shakespeare") and the opera The Cabinet by Thomas Dibdin.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1866: Performed by the Le Roy-Duret Company in the Harrington Street Theatre, Cape Town, on 13 April, and described as an "interesting Personation Comedietta". Performed as an afterpiece to Medea (Euripides).

1866: Performed by the Le Roy-Duret Company in the Harrington Street Theatre, Cape Town, on 5 July, along with The Flying Dutchman (Fitzball).