Garrick, Kemble, Siddons, Kean

The four actors whose careers the essays in this volume explore are not only the greatest English actors of their own times but also performers whose brilliance is still invoked by all interested in theatre. Each took a distinct approach to the Shakespeare roles they played and the texts they used: from David Garrick’s ability to move other actors as well as the audience to tears, to the noble classicism of John Philip Kemble, from the grand tragic style of Sarah Siddons to the terrifying energy of Edmund Kean. Each changed forever the concept of what Shakespeare’s plays might mean in performance.