The Hunchback

The Hunchback is a play in five acts by James Sheridan Knowles (1784-1862)[1]

The original text

First performed at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden in 1832, with Fanny Kemble, Charles Kemble and Knowles himself in the cast. Published in London the same year by E. Moxon.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1861: Performed by Sefton Parry and his company, on 27 May in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, with Mr & Mrs Peter White (Raymond).

1861: Performed by Sefton Parry and his company, on 6 June in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, with Stage Struck, or The Loves of Augustus Portarlington and Celestine Beverly (Dimond).

1862: Performed (apparently for the last time) by Sefton Parry and his company, on 2 May in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, a benefit for John Howard. Also performed was A Dead Shot (Buckstone).

1862: A reading of the play performed by T. Brazier, as one of his series of Dramatic Readings held every second Monday in the Cape Town City Hall between 4 July and 7 November. (Other plays in the series of seven works read were The Lady of Lyons, Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, King John and Much Ado about Nothing.

1877: Performed as The Hunchback by Disney Roebuck and his company in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, on 8 November, with Good for Nothing (Buckstone), and a ballad sung by Miss Wynne.

1877: Performed by the Disney Roebuck Company in the Theatre Royal, Cape Town, on 15 November, with Betsy Baker, or Too Attentive by Half (Morton).