August 1831

This is part of a local history note on performances at Richmond's Theatre Royale. See the start of this local history note.

Date: 24 August 1831

Plays:

• William Shakespeare, Richard III
• George Colman the younger, Ways and Means, or, A Trip to Dover

The Company

The Company included:

Edmund Kean (1787 to 1833)

See local history note on Edmund Kean at Richmond.

The great tragedian’s first recorded performance at the Theatre Royal seems to have been on 19 October 1814. When he played Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. The playbill for that performance describes the part as "the one in which he made his first appearance in London, and which stamped at once stamped him as the greatest actor of the present day." Kean is billed simply as "Mr K."! In fact, Kean’s performance as Shylock at Drury Lane in 1814 was not his first performance in London, but it was the one by which he achieved star status. In later years Kean played at Richmond on a number of occasions, mostly during Klanert’s management. In 1831 he took a lease on the theatre and settled in the adjoining cottage. Despite his failing health, he played there frequently and, in addition, performed at other theatre in London and the provinces. The Theatrical Observer of 25 July 1832 remarked that "The Richmond Theatre…will open on Monday next, under the management of Kean, who is to perform there three times a week, at Windsor twice, and at the Haymarket every Monday during the season;pretty sharp work that for a man with a shattered constitution." As an actor, Kean relied more on movement and facial expression than on voice production. He was at his best when playing malevolent, treacherous or frenzied roles rather than noble or virtuous ones. Comedy was, apparently, outside his scope. He excelled as Shylock, Richard III, Barabas, in Marlowe’s Jew of Malta, and Sir Giles Overreach in Massinger’s New Way to Pay Old Debts. Susan Chambers, then living with the Keans, wrote to a friend describing the impact of Kean’s Sir Giles in January 1816 thus "To see him in the last act I think you would never get over it. Glover got into strong histericks and many ladies fainted." Hazlitt wrote of his Richard III "Never was the character represented by greater distinctness and precision, and perfectly articulated in every part. If Kean did not succeed in concentrating all the lines of the character, he gave a vigour and relief to the part which we have never seen surpassed…The transition from the fiercest passion to the most familiar tone was a quality which Kean possessed over every other actor that ever appeared."

Edmund Kean as Richmond III. Drawing.

His last performance took place at Covent Garden on 25 March 1833. Kean was playing Othello to the Iago of his son, Charles. During the second act he collapsed and a few days later was taken back to Richmond where he died on 15 May. Crowds of people came to the funeral and the mourners included many well-known theatrical figures. The body was interred in Richmond Parish Church and a tablet with a medallion portrait of Kean was erected on the outside of the west wall by his son in 1839. It was brought into the church in1904.

Robert William Honner (1809 to 1852)

Honner began his career as a dancer, later becoming an actor and playing a wide variety of parts. He was lessee of Sadler's Wells Theatre from 1838 to 1840, during which time he tried to establish legitimate drama there.

Charles Selby (1802? to 1863)

Charles Selby was an actor who played many character roles. He also wrote many light one-act plays.

Miss Faucit

The "Miss Faucit" who appeared in this performance was Helen Faucit’s elder sister Harriet.