Subjects
Lives of Shakespearian Actors, Part IV:
Helen Faucit, Fanny Kemble and Elizabeth Vestris by their Contemporaries
Series Editor: Gail Marshall
Consulting Editor: Tetsuo Kishi
Volume Editors: Christy Desmet, Kate Newey and Georgianna Ziegler
Lives of Shakespearian Actors
978 1 85196 930 2: 234x156mm: £275.00/$495.00
Continuing our series on actors who were significant for their outstanding or innovative performance of Shakespeare, this fourth part examines the lives of three pivotal female Shakespearian actors.
Lucia Elizabeth Vestris initially made her fortune as a contralto opera singer. A favourite in male roles she found immediate fame in both Paris and London. In 1838 she married actor Charles James Matthews, under whose management she restored much of the text of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, casting herself as Oberon for the production and inaugurating a tradition of women playing the role which lasted more than seventy years.
Fanny Kemble was the oldest daughter of actor Charles Kemble and niece of noted tragedienne Sarah Siddons. An accomplished actor in her own right, she enjoyed success both at home and abroad, introducing Shakespeare to new audiences in the United States. Fanny published a number of plays and memoirs throughout her life, including Journal of A Residence on a Georgian Plantation, 1838-1839; a reflection on her failed marriage to American plantation-owner Piers Butler and abolitionist attack upon what she called “the dreaded institution” of slavery.
Also from a theatrical background, Helena Faucit joined the Covent Garden theatre company in 1836, where she worked alongside both William Charles Macready and Charles Kemble in roles such as Juliet, Imogen, Hermione and Beatrice. Macready, who considered her the best actress of the period, remained a dominant presence in her career until 1845 when she reportedly received so much applause for a performance that he refused to act with her again.
This broadly interdisciplinary edition will interest scholars undertaking research in Shakespearian studies, History of the Theatre and Performance and Nineteenth Century Studies.
Related titles
- Lives of Shakespearian Actors, Part I : David Garrick, Charles Macklin and Margaret Woffington by their Contemporaries
- Lives of Shakespearian Actors, Part II : Edmund Kean, Sarah Siddons and Harriet Smithson by their Contemporaries
- Lives of Shakespearian Actors, Part III : Charles Kean, Samuel Phelps and William Charles Macready by their Contemporaries