The Man With Shakespeare In His Head (English Edition)

Edmund Kean was a well-known Shakespearean actor who divided critical opinion. The story of his life, coming as he did from a background of poverty to experience international acclaim, is known from a number of sources. Coleridge famously described seeing Kean's acting as like 'reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning'; whereas William Macready's view was that Kean was 'the greatest disgrace to the art of acting of all the disgraceful members that ever practised it', although he was more positive on other occasions. Whatever the case might have been, there is no doubt that Kean was a crucial figure in the history of British acting, not least because of the fact that he rescued the fortunes of Drury Lane Theatre at a critical point in its development when it was on the verge of bankruptcy. It is helpful to bear in mind just how hugely popular actors such as Kean were in their time, and how much wealth and influence they had when they were at the height of their powers. The theatre was central to London's cultural and social life during this period, and hence that of the provinces and America. The purpose of this play is not simply to recount significant moments in Kean's life. Rather, the approach taken is to try and understand Kean's thinking from a different geographical and personal point of view. Normally Kean's life is seen from a London perspective, and that is completely understandable given the context of his performances and his fame. The Isle of Bute, however, and in particular Woodend Cottage beside the shores of Loch Fad near Rothesay, was a very important place to him and could be said to have been his spiritual support when life became very difficult. He drew succour from Bute. There is little doubt that many of Kean's failings were self-inflicted, and his prevarications, drinking habits, pretensions and downright lies were not always attractive to those he lived and worked with; but there is also little doubt he exemplified that passion for the importance of drama, particularly Shakespearean drama, which remains an enduring cultural strength of the English-speaking world and indeed globally. Although the fact can be overlooked on occasions, Kean was always proud of Bute and in his head it remained his island paradise. It is tempting to compare Kean's view with the way in which some of Shakespeare's own imagined islands have a magical or other-worldly quality. The timeline of the play moves backwards and forwards and it is set in the past, present and future. The hope is to try and demonstrate some of the ways in which Kean understood his own world through the words of Shakespeare, steeped in them as he was from an early age. For those readers who are familiar with the Isle of Bute and Loch Fad, and the view from Loch Fad towards the Isle of Arran, there will be recognition of the attraction it all held for Kean. For those who do not know the island, it is worth the journey. It is a matter of record that, each time he returned to Bute, Kean enjoyed a 'welcoming glass' with John Reid, the gardener at Woodend Cottage.