#historicactor

The work of William Shakespeare is deeply woven into our world. We know the stories, we know the quotes, and if nothing else we know of the countless modern adaptations. The words of Shakespeare were launched into the hearts and minds of people from the stage with performers delivering dialog and introducing characters that remained with the viewers long after departing the theater. In the 19th century the actors and actresses that took on these roles could elevate themselves to performing arts royalty earning enormous amounts of money, being knighted, and indulging in lifestyles that equate them to today’s Hollywood elite. One master of the Shakespearean stage was Ira Aldridge, a man who not only gave stunning performances, but also shattered the glass ceiling for people of color in theater.

Ira Frederick Aldridge was born in New York City on July 24th 1807, the son of free parents in a state where slavery was legal. His father Daniel was a preacher and as a child he was given a classical education at the African Free School where his studies included English grammar, writing, mathematics, geography, and astronomy. His parents may have wanted him to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a preacher, but while still in school the young Aldridge was introduced to the performing arts and it instantly took hold of him. By the time Aldridge was a teenager he was already well acquainted with many of New York City’s most prominent African American actors. They saw his talents and encouraged him to move onto the stage of the African Grove Theater.

Founded by William Alexander Brown as a casual get together where Black actors would gather to perform short skits and readings, the African Grove Theater would grow in the hands of Brown and James Hewlett to become the first African American theater group in the United States, attended by “all types of black New Yorkers - free and slave, middle-class and working-class.” In the early 1820s the company was young, and so was Aldridge, who gained his first experience in theater at age fifteen as an apprentice under Hewlett, the first African American Shakespearean actor.

 Aldridge made his African Grove debut in 1822 playing the role of Rolla in Pizarro and then Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare had a special place in the young actor’s heart and he would often see productions of his work in the Park Theater before the stories were brought to his own stage. The productions at the African Grove were well attended and the performances highly praised, but there were continuous problems from the community surrounding them. At the time slavery was not yet abolished and segregation was firmly in place making the theater company, its actors, and its audiences targets for racist attacks and prejudice. White people were permitted to attend performances at the African Grove, but their often disruptive behavior eventually led to an area in the back of the theater being sectioned off specifically for them. When it was not audience members causing problems it was fellow theater companies. When the Park Theater and the African Grove were both hosting performances of Richard III the owner of the Park, Stephen Price, contacted the police to have the “rival” production shut down. Seeing the constant racial pressure made Aldridge all too aware that his dreams of conquering the stage could not happen on American shores. Inspired by the British Shakespearean actors he watched on stage, he moved to Liverpool at only seventeen years old.

Playbill of the African Grove Company’s first production of Richard III. The figure is the actor James Hewlett. 

 Aldridge was new to England, but the country was familiar with his artistic background for all the wrong reasons. More than a year before his arrival a British comedian named Charles Mathews began performing a new routine, including a character called the “African Tragedian.” The portrayal was wildly popular, but it should have been shameful with Matthew donning blackface and portraying an African American who botched lines, made a fool of himself on stage, and fumbled his way through the works of Shakespeare in New York City. It is believed that the inspiration for this character was James Hewlett, the man that Aldridge apprenticed under at the African Grove.

Rather than let the portrayal destroy him, Aldridge used the name recognition to his advantage. He began billing himself as “American Tragedian from the African Theatre New York City” or simply “The African Tragedian.” On October 10th 1825 Aldridge made his European debut in the lead role of Oroonoko in Revolt of Surinam, a story of an African prince tricked into slavery and sold to British colonists. People recognizing the phrase “The African Tragedian” from the Matthews comedy routine filled the theater seats expecting a good laugh. What they got was a powerful dramatic performance that stunned all in attendance with one member of the British press reporting:

“It is most true that those are ‘blessed who expect nothing’, and from this cause may have proceeded in some degree the satisfaction with which we beheld the performance of the ‘Tragedian of Colour, from the African Theatre, New York’, but we do not hesitate to express our opinion that his acting will gratify many and astonish all.”

Regardless of the reviews, when Aldridge stepped onto the stage he had already made history by becoming the first African American actor to establish himself professionally in a foreign country.

Portrait of Aldridge painted by James Northcote.

Aldridge embraced the rumors and misconceptions swirling around him and created an elaborate backstory for himself, that he was the descendant of a Senegalese prince whose family fled their homeland for the United States to save their lives. It was a story that made him seem even more mysterious and people began to visit the theater purely out of intrigue. Whatever the reasons that people went to see him perform, they all left deeply impressed by the power of his acting. After his portrayal of Oroonoko, Aldridge began touring the United Kingdom and over the course of a few years he successfully built a name for himself with his work in productions of Othello, Macbeth and Richard III. Aldridge did not return to London for several years, and when he did it was under circumstances that were tragic but also hugely important to his career. While performing the lead role of Othello on March 15th 1833 Edmund Kean, the most highly renowned tragedian of the time, collapsed on stage into the arms of his actor son Charles Kean and uttered the words, “O God, I am dying. Speak to them, Charles.” He did in fact die a few weeks later leaving a vacancy in the play’s cast. Aldridge was asked to take over the role and he jumped at the opportunity. He had his start in London, but this was different, he was now performing the lead role of Othello in the prestigious Royal Coburg in Covent Garden alongside some of the great names of his industry. He was only twenty-seven years old but it was the role of a lifetime.

Aldridge as Othello, painted by William Mulready.

Unfortunately, Aldridge taking the highest stage in London was too far for some people and reviews that once praised him began to slowly simmer with racism and critiques on everything from his physical appearance to his pronunciations of certain words. As Aldridge took on other roles in the London region critics became sharply divided with some applauding his abilities and others remarking he should be reduced to a street sweeper outside the theaters where he was performing. One complaint of some lay in his very interaction with white actors, but this may have had much deeper roots in that Aldridge would sometimes portray white characters in greasepaint and wigs leading some people to become angry that he was taking prominent rolls from “their” actors. Another reason for the harsh criticism was that Aldridge often took liberties with his performances, changing characters from villain to hero and vice-versa, erasing entire scenes and adding new ones, and adapting classics as he wished. Additionally, on the closing night of his engagement at a theater Aldridge made the bold addition of directly addressing the audience speaking on the injustices of slavery, some addresses coming before or very shortly after the emancipation of slaves in the British colonies in 1832.

Despite all the criticisms, Aldridge had built himself up to be a bona fide star of the stage taking on complex roles with ease and even resurrecting Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus in 1845, a production not produced in the British Isles since 1724. 

Aldridge as Aaron in his revival of Titus Andronicus.

After touring various theaters in England he made his way to the European continent in 1852 where he performed in wildly successful tours in Germany and was presented to the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. He then proceeded to tour Prussia, performing for Frederick William IV who awarded him the Prussian Gold Medal of the First Class for Art and Science. He then moved on through the later 1850s performing in Budapest, Serbia, and then Imperial Russia making him the first actor to perform Shakespeare in the country. His performances in Russia caused a wide array of reactions. They were powerful, highly praised, and he became acquaintances with some of the great poets and artists of the time such as Taras Shevchenko, Count Fyodor Tolstoy, and the Czar of Russia who awarded him with a Golden Cross for his accomplishments. On another hand the performances caused uprisings and resulted in some works of Shakespeare being banned entirely. With his near-constant touring and performing Aldridge became one of the most well-know and acclaimed tragedians of his time and in 1859 with nearly four decades of acting under his belt he returned home to England. It was time to take on another benchmark of Shakespearean acting and tackle the role of King Lear.  

Pastel portrait of Aldridge drawn by Taras Shevchenko in 1858.

After successfully performing the great tragedy and then completing a second tour of Russia Aldridge again returned to England. He was now in his later fifties and after purchasing property in England and applying for British citizenship in 1863 it may have seemed that the actor was finally ready to take root at home. But this was not the case and he was quickly back on the road in Europe and making plans to bring a tour to the post- Civil War United States. Unfortunately, his plans to cross the Atlantic again never had the chance to unfold. In 1867 Aldridge was on tour in Poland when he became very ill with a lung infection. He died in the city of Łódź on August 7th 1867 at the age of sixty.

Aldridge portraying King Lear.

For a man that revolutionized so much in the world of performing arts the news of Aldridge’s death took an unfortunately long time to reverberate through the world. His remains were buried in the Łódź Old Evangelical Cemetery but he would not receive a proper tombstone and memorial for twenty-three years. In the United States Aldridge had become a legend and a role model for African Americans but the news of his death reached the states painfully slowly. Many Black theater groups decided to rename their companies to honor Aldridge, most notably The Ira Aldridge Troupe of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His grave is now maintained by the Society of Polish Artists of Film and Theatre.

The magnitude and influence of Ira Aldridge’s accomplishments cannot be understated. As a young man in the early 1800s he took the steps to travel across the globe in order to not only challenge, but smash the roadblocks placed in front of African American performing artists. Despite mixed reviews and racism that attempted to crush him he thrived, taking on Shakespeare in England and carrying it to other parts of the United Kingdom, all over Europe, and to corners of the globe that had never had access to Shakespeare on stage before. He gave performances that both amazed and infuriated through his renditions of text, his customizations, and his speaking directly against the horrors of slavery in a world where it was still firmly rooted in people’s lives.

Today the honors to Ira Aldridge can be found all over the globe. Howard University in Washington D.C. has a theatre named after him, A bust of Aldridge sits in the foyer of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London, in 2014 a memorial plaque was dedicated at the place of his death in Poland, and he is one of thirty-three people granted a bronze plaque at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon.