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On 2 June 1971 the Parks and Recreation Committee considered a request from the Port Elizabeth Shakespearean Festival and resolved “that provision be made on the 1972 estimates for an amount of R12,500 for the development of an open air theatre in St. George's Park".
History Highlights
1799
Hamlet
Fort Frederick
1847
Ion
The Queer Subject
Commercial Hall
1876
Othello
Theatre Royal
1938
A Midsummer Night's Dream
St George's Swimming Pool
1950
Twelfth Night
Loubser Hall
1960
King Lear
1963
Hamlet
1964
The Taming of The Shrew
1965
Much Ado About Nothing
1966
Macbeth
1969
Romeo and Juliet
1970
Twelfth Night
1971
Merchant of Venice
Happy Valley
1972
Opening of Mannville
A Midsummer Night's Dream
1973
As You Like It
1974
The Tempest
1975
Macbeth,
1976
The Taming of the Shrew
1977
Hamlet,
1978
Othello
1979
Much Ado About Nothing,
1980
Romeo and Juliet
1981
Twelfth Night
1982
A Midsummer Night's Dream.
1983
As You Like It,
1984
The Tempest
1985
King Lear
1986
Macbeth
1987
Hamlet
1988
Richard III
1989
Taming of the Shrew
1990
Merchant of Venice
1991
Romeo and Juliet
1992
A Midsmmer-night's Dream
1993
Twelfth Night
1994
Much Ado About Nothing
1995
Othello
1996
All the World's a Stage
1997
Romeo and Juliet
1998
Macbeth
1999
The Tempest
2000
Hamlet
2001
The Merchant of Venice
2002
The Taming of the Shrew
2003
King Lear
2004
Twelfth Night
2005
A Midsummer Night's Dream
2006
Much Ado About Nothing
2007
As You Like It
2008
Richard III
2009
Romeo and Juliette
2010
Othello
2011
A Midsummer Night's Dream
2012
Anthony and Cleopatra
Opera House
2013
Hamlet
Little Theatre
2014
Macbeth
Little Theatre
2015
Twelfth Night
2016
The Tempest
Return to Mannville
Loubser Hall before conversion into the Ford Little Theatre.
This advert from the Eastern Province Herald of January 6, 1938, is for the open-air theatre in Happy Valley.
John Hamber as Malvolio in Twelfth Night.
The entrance to the St George's Park tearoom. (open door)
The Background to the
founding of Mannville.
When Napoleon became First Consul of France in 1799, the British Garrison, expecting a French attack in Algoa Bay, sent a detachment to defend the landing.
One of the first thing the soldiers did was to build a defensive structure, Fort Frederick, but after it was completed they soon became bored and looked elsewhere to keep themselves occupied.
The soldiers decided to perform one of William Shakespeare’s plays.
Since the newly-built fort provided them with a ready-made set, complete with ramparts and other structures, they decided a moonlight night at the fort would be the ideal location for ghosts and other spiritual apparitions to appear.
The obvious play for the soldiers would be Hamlet.
The stage was set for first documented open air performance of Shakespeare in South Africa.
Fort Frederick before restoration: It was an ideal location in which to stage Hamlet in 1799.
Although the Port Elizabeth Amateur Theatre's first production, Sergeant Talfourd's Ion, and J S Coyne's the farce The "Queer Subject", ("queer" as in "shady") were held indoors at the Commercial Hall on October 22, 1847, it marked the introduction of civilian theatre in the young town.
This advertisement appeared in the Eastern Province Herald on September 28, 1847.
"In mid-nineteenth-century Philadelphia, plays with classical subjects were nearly as popular as Shakespeare.
"Contemporary reaction to one of these plays, Thomas Talfourd’s Ion, or The Foundling of Argos, reveals its audiences’ expectations about gender on stage and in society.
"American audiences, unlike their English counterparts, expected to see the role of Ion played by a woman.
"Especially in the1830s, actresses playing Ion faced audiences who expected to see their feminine qualities preserved.
"They were disguised as boys on the edge of manhood, but to be successful, the disguise had to fail by preserving their essential character as women." - Lee T. Pearcy
The Queer Subject
Dr Bingo: "Oh! Wonderful triumph of art, he lives!"
Line engraving drawn by Pierce Egan during the performance.
The Queer Subject was a one act farce written by J S Coyne and performed for the first time at the Royal Adelphi Theatre in November, 1835. Characters included Dr Bingo, Charles, Bill Mattock, Ned Snatch, Sammy Spectre, Tom Darking, Countrymen and Julia.
Synopsis: A couple of workers overhear Dr Bingo telling someone he would pay them £10 to accept a parcel (with a body inside) on his behalf. The workers decide they should rather have the cash. They swop bodies and when the doctor starts experimenting with electricity the body comes to life.
This advert for a Farewell Benefit for Hilda Temple's
appearance in Othello was published in the
Eastern Province Herald on December 12, 1876.
The Theatre Royal, sometimes referred to as the "New Theatre" and nicknamed "The Barn" because of its corrugated iron structure, opened on June 2, 1862 and was situated in White's Road. It was opened by the Port Elizabeth Dramatic Company with performances by the lessee, Sefton Parry.
Hilda Temple was an internationally acclaimed Shakespearean actress who travelled extensively and who gave her last South African performance in Port Elizabeth on December 13, 1876. In January, 1892 the Town Council sold the theatre with the proceeds going towards the construction of the Opera House.
Othello and Desdemona, by Antonio Muñoz Degrain
Some of the cast of the Taube Kushlick's 1938 production of
A Midsummer Night's Dream.
On June 21, 1938, the coldest and shortest day of the year and 16 months before the outbreak of the Second World War, a young Port Elizabeth woman, Taubie Kushlick (nee Braun) opened her first major production, A Midsummer Night's Dream, in the grounds of the newly opened St George's Park swimming bath.
Among the cast elves and fairies were future leading actors, Germaine Glueck and Helen Baynes.
One time Port Elizabeth resident and ballet teacher, Mina Friedlander, was the choreographer.
Back at St George's swimming bath the Mechanicals performed on a raft on the pool and fears were expressed the group would fall into the water.
Port Elizabeth actors such as Iris Hawkin, M B Leppan, Myra Pamensky, Mollie Pittaway, Madge Frost, Dinki Goldberg, June Salters, Zelia Zartz, Edna Miller, Sheila Weinronk (an elf), P Muff-Ford and E Clear were listed.
Another elf who later became very well-known in acting circles was none other than Helen Mann.
According to the programme the premier danseuse was Lorna Enslin.
In charge of lighting was A Behrens while Cliff Collett played the organ. All the costumes were designed by Sonia Woolff.
During the performance John van Eyssen, as Puck, made an appearance on the diving board and made his “first plunge to fame” in this production while the corps de ballet of fairies danced between the trees.
Van Eyssen later made a name for himself while acting in several British films, notably Cockleshell Heroes, Dracula, The Angel with the Trumpet (1950), Three Steps in the Dark (1953), Four Sided Triangle (1953), and as a producer film hits such as Nicholas and Alexandria, Oliver, and The Young Churchill.
Among the films he oversaw were A Man for All Seasons (1966), Born Free (1966), Georgy Girl (1966), To Sir, with Love (1967), Romeo and Juliet (1968) and Oliver! (1968).
Both Oliver and A Man for All Seasons won Best Picture Academy Awards.
John van Eyssen, who, as an amateur actor played "Puck" at the St George's Park swimming pool in 1938, prepares to drive a wooden stake through the heart of a sleeping female vampire, played by Valerie Gaunt, to free her from the evil spell into which she has fallen in this scene from the 1958 film, "Horror of Dracula".
OPEN AIR THEATRE: This photograph of Happy Valley was taken in December, 1940, and clearly shows the open air theatre in the bottom left hand corner. The seats are arranged in theatre style facing the stage which is unfortunately obscured by some palm trees. Behing the seating is what appears to be a bandstand. The old Palm Grove cafe, which was run by Helen Flax's father, George Frangopoulos, from1956/till 1963, and can be seen in the centre left of the photo. The building was demolished after the 1968 floodwaters undermined the foundations. The old Bathing House can be seen on the right hand side. Sadly, every single structure, with the exception of the "Tin Hat", in this photograph has been demolished.
It is interesting to note the cafe in the grounds of St George's Park was later the setting for Athol Fugard's play Master Harold . . . and the Boys.
The greatest problem facing professional and amateur theatre administrators was the procurement of a permanent home.
In 1950 the Port Elizabeth Musical and Dramatic Society managed to find a venue in the Loubser Hall, which subsequently was changed into The Little Theatre.
That was where Will Jamieson directed Twelfth Night featuring John Hamber as Malvolio.
This production was not only responsible for motivating a lasting public interest in Shakespeare but it also included a young man named Bruce Mann in the cast.
When Helen and Bruce Mann were married in 1951 the seeds of Mannville were sown as they gave their talent, love and hard work to the shaping of The Port Elizabeth Shakespearean Festival.
Will Jamieson directed
Twelfth Night.