Kean is keen

Can a playbill say too much?

Actor and manager Charles Kean certainly didn’t think so and was keen to demonstrate his erudition on his packed playbills, which contain every single detail about his lavish productions.

The son of the famous actor Edmund Kean, he was a well-known and successful actor in his own right.

But his time at the Princess theatre between 1850 – 1859 was when he earned the most professional acclaim.

Although this era was not known for its fine Shakespearean acting, Kean was known for his densely packed playbills.

Neither Shakespeare’s comedies nor his tragedies escaped his merciless pen.

Didactic in style, the playbill below is a good example of his “oeuvre”.

“A recreation wherein instruction is blended with amusement…”

Fired up with the Victorian quest for self-improvement Kean is keen to tell us every single detail about his lavish production.

He name checks Chaucer and Wickcliffe and in the same paragraph offers his own version of medieval history.

His eye for detail extends to listing the composition, adaptation and source of the music including the information about where it is published and so on, and on.

Other playbills for productions are written in a similar fashion.

Kean also offered theatre on a spectacular scale. A production of “The Tempest” in 1857 needed over 140 operatives.

He also used scenic panoramas to give an effect of moving from one location to another.

In this production of “Richard the Second” he used between 500 and 600 performers for the entry of Bolingbroke into London with the shamed King Richard.

When it came to the text of Shakespeare he was, like many at the time, less concerned with authenticity and happy with adaptations that introduced singing witches or tableaux.

His productions were possibly the first to be recorded with photographs of individual actors or small groups.