Black History Month - Ira Aldridge

Black History Month: 26 October 2020

 

Ira Aldridge was the first black Shakespearean actor, who made his career on the London stage. His father had initially intended him for the church, and sent him to New York's African Free School, where many future leaders of the American abolition movement were educated. However, Ira was attracted to the theatre, at a time when British actors were playing in New York, and the city's free black community had launched its own African Theatre. He made his debut as Rolla in 'Pizarro', but the only way for Ira to succeed was to emigrate. Therefore, when he was around 17, he worked his passage to Liverpool as a ship's steward.

 

His first known British performance in 1825 had a mixed reception. The Times commented on his apparent difficulty to pronounce English due to the shape of his lips, but The Globe found his enunciation interesting and distinct. Due to Ira's race, he received a hostile response, preventing him from establishing himself in London. Outside of London, he won respect, and was able to perform as Othello. His contemporaries praised his work, but was boycotted by the West End stage, and so sailed for Europe. While on a lengthy tour, visiting many places no foreign actor had been to, he died aged 59. The whole town of Lodz turned out to mourn his passing.

 

Want to find out more about Ira Aldridge? Click here for more information.

Shakespeare's England

Here are some of the sources which today's talk on Shakespeare's England (for Nonsuch Literary Week) was based on:

• A Compendium of Common Knowledge: A fantastic collection of information (somewhat randomly arranged) about everyday life in Elizabethan England, examining topics as diverse as food, music, duelling and how much to tip servants. Provided by http://www.elizabethan.org/ which also has other interesting material on Elizabethan topics. Its links page is also very thorough.
• Elizabethan Theatre: Lots of details on the different theatres operating in Elizabethan England.
• Shakespeare (from the RSC): Plenty of information, including a helpful PDF on Shakespeare's life and career.
• Elizabethan Theatre (A lecture): Lots of detail on theatres, performances, etc.
• Elizabethan England in the Year of Shakespeare's Birth (Joel Hurstfield, History Today, 1964): It may be 50 years old, but it is still a very helpful and detailed article, focusing on Sir Thomas Smith's survey of England written in 1565.

If you find any further useful sites, please let us know and we will add them to the list!

The Mother of Modern Theatre

 

          So I admit that I didn’t quite pull off the whole "I'm gonna post loads of articles and never stop until I’ve covered everything" thing, but to be honest with you, I’ve fallen prey to the most common addiction faced by teenagers : sleep. So while I’d love to profess to have not written because I have been doing homework, or contributing fantastic things to the world of science, or achieving world peace, I would quite simply be lying. Nope, I have been contributing nothing more to the world than my own absence, and that is something that you should all be very grateful for. But here I am, back again, to ramble some more and reassure you that however stupid you may feel, I am out there, lowering the bar for people everywhere...
   Anyway, I have a confession to make. History and Politics are not my only loves. Drama has a hold of a part of my heart in a way that I feel can never been reversed. So instead of feeling slightly ashamed that my interests are split, I have decided to combine them, and write about a woman who, to be honest with you, I think is pretty decent: Joan Littlewood.
    The thespians of you may be aware of some of Joan’s more famous productions, such as Oh, What a lovely War! And A taste of honey, and if you haven't heard of them or seen them, I highly suggest that you do! Littlewood was very left wing, so much so in fact that she joined the Communist party in Britain, and so was banned from banned from broadcasting on the BBC until MI5 investigated and decided she had broken off ties two years later. And I could go on for ages about how all of her productions have really struck a chord with so many people, and how she revolutionised the world of acting, but there are three things that I love the most about her : One, that she tried to make theatre truly accessible for everyone, rather than just the rich ; two, that she refused to go along with the myth spread about that the First World War was almost 'jolly'; and three, that she stuck by her views right up until the day she died.
Part of the reason I love her so much is that she stood out, from day one. She was basically who I want to be. When she was 12 she asked her Grandfather why the general strike had collapsed after ten days, and when he asked 'what do you want, red revolution?' her answer then and up until the day she died was quite simply 'yes'. She had her views and she stuck to them. I don’t know, maybe I love her so much because she is who I would love to be. Or maybe she is who I want to be because I love her. Either way, it doesn’t matter. She saw that things were almost being 'covered up', great social injustices. So she simply changed that, and shouted at the top of her voice about them. She could act, and she loved politics, so she did something. So although many may not agree with her far-left wing views, I will stand by Joan the way I stand by Winston. Quite simply because I believe that there’s nothing worse than staying quiet when you don’t agree with something. Stand up, shout about it. People may not agree with you, but people didn’t agree with my Winston. And if he hadn’t stood up against appeasement, where would we be now...
  So there we are. An article that I feel very strongly about. Go on, take a leaf out of Joan’s book... shout out a little bit...
 I do have a very loud voice...
 E.C