Rose Pompon

Rose Pompon is a one act play by an anonymous author.

The original text

Clearly written for Minnie Palmer's skills as a coquettish actress (and possibly by herself), the play is set in a French Marshal's quarters. A Red Cross sister asks for an audience as he is reviewing death warrants. She wants a reprieve for a man who has killed a man in a duel for a 'worthless woman' named Rose Pompon. When he leaves the room, it is discovered that the Red Cross sister is Rose, who has repented her ways. Under her cloak is an old stage costume and on the marshal's return she purrs and pouts and sings and dances and uses "tricks" to obtain the pardon, which he ultimately grants.

It seems to have been first performed in the USA in 1899 and in Northern Ireland in 1900

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1903: Performed by Minnie Palmer (1865 - 1936) and a vaudeville company at the Opera House, Cape Town on 23 April.

Sources

http://societytopreservehistory.blogspot.com/2017/09/minnie-palmer-great-star-of-stage.html

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.414

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