Tintin Forums

Hello!

I'm new here - Mr Ewing pointed me in this general direction...

Hergé wrote Tintin stage plays - two, I think.
Were they ever published, and does anyone know anything about them, beyond the fact that they existed?

Welcome, Martylog! (Thanks, Garen, for the referral!)

There is some information about the stage plays by Hergé and Jacques van Melkebeke in Steemans' book, Tout Herge and as well Goddins' Hergé et Tintin, I believe.

Tintin in India: The Mystery of the Blue Diamond (Tintin aux Indes : Le Mystère du diamant bleu) was performed in Brussels in 1941.
Mr Boullock Has Disappeared (Monsieur Boullock à disparu) was performed in Brussels between December 1941 and January 1942.

Tintin in India: The Mystery of the Blue Diamond was definitely performed in London sometime in the late 70's.
I remember my sister went with her school to see it, and I was extremely jealous! :)

That's very interesting - hadn't heard of a London performance before. I wasn't even aware that a copy of the play still existed, or at least up until the late 70s. I might have to look into that a bit further, thanks!

Thanks for the further reading tips, marsbar, I shall investigate!

This is very strange. I think I have read all the most important books written about Hergé and I have never heard of this play in London. I would like to know if that was done "officially", i.e. with the approval of Hergé himself or not .
Summary of the play:
The famous Blue Diamond of the Maharajah of Padhakore has disappeared!
Who is the thief? Prime Minister Badapoure, or the servant of the Maharajah? The archeologist Chippendaele or Doctor Nicholson? And what are the roles of the fakir and hypnotizer Caudebathimouva Thoubva and Count Koulansky, the Ambassador of Syldavia?
Tintin leaves India aboard the ship "Rampura" and it's in a Syldavian castle that the mystery of the Blue Diamond is solved.

It's all very intriguing...I wonder if it would be possible to get hold of the script?

The pictures on that website look very much like Herge's work from the 1940s...apart from the bad image quality, that is.

Anyway, I was surprised to hear about this too, because I've never heard of it before either!

Hello,
I am informed that Hergé wrote two plays featuring Tintin in the early 1940's; the first one was Tintin in India: The Mystery of the Blue Diamond, the second was Mr. Boullock Has Disappeared.
In both dramas the actors playing Tintin also performed the actions of Snowy.
I just know that these dramas were performed in Brussels, and the director was Paul Riga.
Can any one of you give me further information on them: are they in print, and available in English?

Moderator Note: As there is an existing thread on the plays, your post has been moved here.

I’m not even certain that the plays are available in French or Flemish, let alone English! They seem to have rather vanished, from what little information is around. They were produced during the Occupation, so they might have got lost due to that.

I do know that Tintin was played by a girl, Jeanne Rubens, in the 1941 “Blue Diamond”, at the Théâtre des Galeries (Gallery Theatre) in Brussels (I think it may be a cinema now). How she played Snowy I do not know, but I am imagining that it may have been some sort of puppet which she could operate. There is a drawing of a performance in the “Aventures d’Hergé” book, with dancing girls, looking quite lavish, but I don’t know if this from reference photos, or just the artist speculating on a scene, based on a scenario and cast-list.

A little boy called Roland Ravez played Tintin in “Mr. Bullock”, aged only 9, and again was credited with playing Snowy. It too must have been lavish, as Tintin searches the globe, from Casablanca to Argentina, China and Tibet.

Hope this helps.

I've been sitting on this material for some time but now I've finally translated the summaries of "Blue Diamond" and "Boullock", see http://web.telia.com/~u66002771/tintin.htm
Hopefully it'll be a start of a revision of the whole RADJAIDJAH-site, both visual and "textual".