The Bear
The Bear is a one-act play by Anton Chekhov.
Translations and adaptations
There appears to have been an Afrikaans translation by an unnamed translator entitled Die Beer ("The bear"), used by the students and staff of the University of Stellenbosch Drama Department (Universiteitsteater Stellenbosch) in the H.B. Thom Theatre for performances in October 1975, and later again in 198*. NELM has press clippngs and other material of a production of Die Beer by the Grahamstown Amateur Dramatic Society, date not stated.
Translated into Afrikaans as Die Buffel (literally "The buffalo", but metaphorically "the boor") by Alewyn Lee, published by Tafelberg, 1980, in the collection Die Buffel en ander eenakters.
Performance history in South Africa
1945: Produced for the Krugersdorp Municipal Dramatic and Operatic Society by Anna Neethling-Pohl as their entry in the 1945 FATSSA Play Festival, featuring Frieda Mardegant. A second society, the Natal Society Play Reading Group, also produced the play at this festival.
1970: Performed by students of the Stellenbosch University Drama Department in 1970 under direction of Jan Engelen starring Johann van Heerden, Sharon Montgomery and Theuns Meyer.
1974: Performed in English in the lunch-hour slot at The Space (Cape Town). Bill Tanner was the director and the stage manager was Andrea Fine. The cast consisted of Limpie Basson, Yvonne Bryceland and Keith Grenville.
1975: Die Beer performed in Afrikaans directed by Ria Olivier, starring Johan Fourie, Anna-Marie Engelbrecht, Carina Steyn, Herman Pretorius, and Christine Monaco in October.
1978: The Bear was presented by the Rhodes University Drama Department, directed by Claerwen Howie in a double bill with Something Unspoken.
198*: Staged in Afrikaans as Die Beer by Universiteitsteater Stellenbosch in the H.B. Thom Theatre, directed by ***, with (actress?***), Anton Smith and Neels Engelbrecht.
2013: Performed in English, in tandem with The Proposal, from 22 to 26 August, 1 to 12 September at the Intimate Theatre, Cape Town, by The Mechanicals, as part of their Chekhov Season, which also included The Cherry Orchard (6 to 17 August and 27 to 31 August).
Sources
Bosman, 1928: pp
Trek, 10(8):23, 1945.
Astbury, 1979.
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