By Aldridge had taken the name of Keene, a homonym for the then popular British actor, Edmund Kean. Aldridge observed a common theatrical practice of assuming an identical or similar nomenclature to that of a celebrity in order to garner attention.
In addition to being called F. An innovation Aldridge introduced early in his career was a direct address to the audience on the closing night of his engagement at a given theatre. In the years leading up to the emancipation of all slaves in the British colonies in , he would speak of the injustice of slavery to his closing night audiences.
Aldridge performed scenes from Othello that impressed reviewers. In search of new and suitable material, Aldridge also appeared occasionally as white European characters, for which he would be made up with greasepaint and wig.
In Aldridge successfully played in Dublin where he created a sensation in the small towns; as well as in Bath and Edinburgh, Actor Edmund Kean praised his Othello; some took him to task for taking liberties with the text, while others attacked his race.
Aldridge used this to his benefit and expanded African references in his biography that appeared in playbills. Aldridge first toured to continental Europe in , with successes in Germany, where he was presented to the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and performed for Frederick William IV of Prussia; he also performed in Budapest. An tour took him to Serbia and to Imperial Russia, where he became acquainted with Count Fyodor Tolstoy, Mikhail Shchepkin and the Ukrainian poet and artist Taras Shevchenko, who did his portrait in pastel.
Now of an appropriate age, he played the title role of King Lear in England for the first time. A German newspaper reported that Aldridge donated money to American abolition causes, once helping to buy the freedom of a family from Baltimore. Aldridge died in Poland while on tour in Although he had begun planning a theatrical tour to America following the end of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery in the United States, he never returned to his native country. Several African-American playwrights, directors, and actors have presented homages to him over the years, including Ossie Davis, Charles Dutton, and Ted Lange.
He is also the only African-American actor to have a memorial plaque in his name installed in the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon. African-American leaders including W. DuBois helped raise funds for it in African-American and Caribbean communities.
Bernth Lindfors, Ira Aldridge four volumes, — Folger Shakespeare Library. Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. The Captive Slave. Intended to appeal to the abolitionist cause, the figure and composition evoke Christian iconography of martyred Saints. The shackled figure in red prison garments is framed against a dark background as he sorrowfully looks towards the heavens, resigned to his fate.
Exhibited several years before the decisive Slavery Abolition Act of , the painting would have resonated with the Christian mentality underpinning the abolitionist movement, and was spearheaded by figures such as William Wilberforce and members of the Anglican Clapham Sect.
Ira Aldridge belonging to Tate's collection are believed to be of Aldridge. Head of a Man? Ira Frederick Aldridge exhibited We can affirm this attribution according to Martin Postle, partly because the dates coincide with Aldridge's 'rapid rise to prominence as the first great Black Shakespearean actor on the British stage'. One crucial scene in the play takes place in a prison, after Aldridge's character liberates an imprisoned white captive and subsequently submits himself to slavery once again in a moment of self-sacrifice.
A few years later, the artist Henry Perronet Briggs created this half-length portrait of a figure believed to be Aldridge, who is depicted in theatrical attire and gazes into the distance.
Ira Aldridge as Othello. A depiction of Kean in the National Portrait Gallery by John William Gear shows the actor with darkened skin as he plays the part of the Moorish general. Edmund Kean as Othello. Blackface , or the historic tendency for white stage actors to use dark makeup, flourished during the Shakespearean era, but was popularised in America in the early nineteenth century and typically perpetuated racist stereotypes and caricatures of African Americans.
Before Aldridge, only white performers such as Kean had portrayed Othello on stage, and as suggested by Gear's depiction, they darkened their skin using materials such as burnt cork, greasepaint or shoe polish.
After Aldridge's debut at London's most prestigious theatre, some reviewers protested about a Black actor appearing on stage. Nevertheless, The Morning Post praised his performance, writing: 'it was doubtless sufficiently good to be considered very curious'.
It is likely that the rare sighting of a person of colour on stage — and not as an enslaved person or servant — fascinated British audiences, especially as Aldridge's eloquence and talent would have undermined racist assumptions underpinning nineteenth-century attitudes. Due to rising tensions and protests about the abolition of slavery in Britain's colonies in , after only a handful of performances, the theatre closed the play and Aldridge was dismissed.
His Memoir recounted: 'Theatres were not doing well, and the "legitimate" business was particularly low. He performed but four nights at Covent Garden; and then his name was withdrawn from the bills. Aldridge continued to perform the part of Othello in regional theatres, evidenced in part by the fact that a number of years later, the Irish artist William Mulready captured a Black figure presumed to be Aldridge in battle armour.
The book detailed aspects of both his personal and professional life, describing his voyages across the country: 'acting in succession at Brighton, Chichester, Leicester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Exeter, Belfast and so on, returning to London after a lapse of seven years Around the same time, both this painting and engraving show Aldridge in one of his most famous roles, as Mungo in the operetta The Padlock by Isaac Bickerstaffe.
In his role as a servant from the West Indies, Aldridge sang, danced and played guitar. According to the National Portrait Gallery, he became known for 'mixing protest with comedy'. Another engraving in the National Portrait Gallery presents him during a performance at the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton in , where he plays the role of Aaron, a Moor, in Shakespeare's violent tragedy Titus Andronicus.
Aldridge spent much of the s on the Continent, touring the Austro-Hungarian empire, Germany, Prussia, Switzerland, Poland and eventually travelling to Russia in where he was well received.
Upon returning to England in the s, he applied for British citizenship. His personal life was just as eventful as his professional one — although his wife, Margaret Gill, bore no children, it is believed that he fathered at least six children by three other women, one of whom became his second wife. Two of his daughters, Luranah and Amanda, became professional operatic singers.
Ira Frederick Aldridge By the time of his death in in Lodz, Poland, Aldridge was an acclaimed and award-winning stage actor and the most visible Black figure in Europe. He had appeared on stage in more than theatres across Britain and Ireland, and more than theatres in Europe. During his lifetime, Aldridge successfully challenged preconceived notions about the capabilities of Black people, but unfortunately his legacy faded from public consciousness after his death, though African-American actors sought to preserve his memory and regarded him as an inspiration model.
In , the award-winning play Red Velvet written by Lolita Chakrabarti and starring Adrian Lester opened in London, and successfully pushed Aldridge's life back onto the centre stage. New stories, newly added artworks and shop offers delivered straight to your inbox every week. Created with Sketch.
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