AustLit

Alfred Dampier adapted and staged Jess, H. Rider Haggard's imperial romance set during the first Anglo-Boer War (1880-81) as a sensation melodrama. In response to the public's renewed interest in South Africa following the Jameson Raid, Dampier re-worked the play in 1896 as A Transvaal Heroine. Ailsa McPhearson writes that while the plays were severely criticised by the colonial press for turning Haggard's characters into melodramatic stereotypes, the public nevertheless responded favourably and both became popular successes (258).