The Sea of Ice (play) explained

The Sea of Ice is a 19th century melodrama play in English adapted from the 1853 French play La Priére des Naufragés (Prayer of the Wrecked) by Adolphe d'Ennery and Ferdinand Dugué.[1]

French debut

The French play under the title La Priére des Naufragés was first performed at the Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique and debuted on 20 October 1853.

Original Paris cast

English adaptations

In London, it debuted at the Adelphi Theatre under the title The Thirst for Gold, or the Lost Ship and the Wild Flower of Mexico on 4 December 1853, with Benjamin Nottingham Webster as Carlos. It ran to great success until June 1854, and had a running length of three and a half hours. The big draw was a scene where the mutineers of a ship strand the captain and his family on a sea of ice which then breaks up.[2] [3] However, because Webster had simply pirated the play from the French version, once this was exposed a number of copycat translations popped up.[2] One adaptation appeared at the Marylebone Theatre in London in 1854 under the title The Struggle for Gold: or, the Orphan of the Frozen Sea, which added a Danish vessel breaking up the sea ice to serve as a rescue ship.[4] Webster revived the play in 1874 under the title Prayer in the Storm where it ran for 143 performances (28 March - 11 September 1874), and featured Geneviève Ward.[5] [6]

Original Adelphi cast

American adaptation

Laura Keene produced the play in America to success as The Sea of Ice. She brought on the play at her New York theatre on 5 November 1857, where it ran until 21 December, and it saved her company financially.[4] [7] President Abraham Lincoln and his wife attended a Keene performance of the play in Washington, D.C., on 8 February 1864.[8] [9]

Original Keene New York cast (5 November 1857)

External links

Notes and References

  1. Holman, Andrew & Robert K. Kristofferson, eds. More of a Man: Diaries of a Scottish Craftsman in Mid-Nineteenth-Century , p. 672 n. 70 (2013)
  2. Mattacks, Ken. Acts of Piracy: Black Ey'd Susan, Theatrical Publishing and the Victorian Stage, in Moore, Grace, ed., Pirates and Mutineers of the Nineteenth Century: Swashbucklers and Swindlers, pp. 133-34 (2011)
  3. (10 December 1853). The Theatrical Examiner, The Examiner, p. 789
  4. Brown, T. Allston. A History of the New York Stage from the First Performance in 1732 ..., Volume 2, pp. 128-29 (1902)
  5. http://textarchive.ru/c-2986957-pall.html Royal Adelphi Theatre Seasonal Digest for 1873-1874, Ed. Frank McHugh & Gilbert Cross
  6. (4 April 1874). Adelph Theatre, The Athenaeum
  7. Fisher, James. Historical Dictionary of American Theater: Beginnings, p. xxxv (2015)
  8. Epstein, Daniel Mark. The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage, pp. 419-20 (2008)
  9. https://pfaffs.web.lehigh.edu/node/54129 Keene entry at The Vault at Pfaffs (Lehigh University)

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