Toerien-Rubin

Toerien-Rubin (1963-1970) is a production company founded by Basil Rubin and Pieter Toerien in 1964-1970(*?).

Being edited (November 2023)

The company

Cinema owner Basil Rubin had been Pieter Toerien's former boss, and in 1963 they joined forces to form the Toerien-Rubin company in order to stage a range of variety shows over the ensuing years.

In 1969-1970 they also went into partnership with Shirley Firth on occasion, a company referred to as Toerien-Rubin-Firth (see the entry for details)

The productions

Among the company's productions were:

1964: They brought out British artists such as vocalist Alma Cogan and Dickie Valentine (booked by Hugo Keleti) and the English comedians Dora Bryan and Alfred Marks.

1966: They staged James Ambrose-Brown's The Years of the Locust at the Alexander Theatre, starring Johann Nell, Frank Shelley and Yvonne Bryceland.

1967: At the Johannesburg Civic Theatre they presented two musical shows, one by Russ Conway and the other by Hollywood dancer-actress Cyd Charisse and her husband, Tony Martin. At the Brooke Theatre, they presented Aleksei Arbuzov’s The Promise, directed by Leonard Schach, with Andrew Ray, John Fraser and Olive McFarland[1] and the revue Maggie and Frank, starring Maggie Soboil and Frank Lazarus.

1969: The company now also started importing complete productions from the West End, starting with Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, starring Richard Todd, Jean Kent, Vanessa Lee, Peter Graves, Derek Bond and Joyce Grant. They also brought out Dames at Sea from America (directed by Don Liberto and performed at the Alexander Theatre) and Jimmy Edwards's London hit Big Bad Mouse, starring Cardew Robinson and Bess Finney.

1970: They brought an American production of Noël Coward's Fallen Angels to the Alexander Theatre, featuring Hermione Gingold and Joan Heal and a British production of Oh, Clarence to the Civic Theatre (directed by Anthony Sharp with Cicely Courtneidge, Jack Hulbert, Roger Livesey, Ursula Jeans, David Kossoff and Robertson Hare).