The Cult of Kean (review)

An upstart actor loved by the masses, who donned American Indian dress and redecorated his house as a seraglio with personal sex slaves in preparation for a role, fed fresh meat to his pet African lion, and planned to transform society "one drunken night and four ruined women at a time" (82), Edmund Kean—in his lives and afterlives—is ripe for analysis. In his illuminating, fascinating, and compelling study The Cult of Kean, Jeffrey Kahan examines the rumors, fantasies, and truths surrounding this eccentric and talented actor whose "life was a public show" (2). Kahan's sources include previously unpublished letters from Kean's wife as well as numerous documents from the author's personal collection. As Kahan demonstrates, though Kean lived only 43 years, different "Keans" have been constructed with these and other materials, both by Kean and by others, and "we are still living … in a Keanian world of illusion" (10). Although Kahan's most significant contribution is his analysis of various "Keanian event[s]" (4), The Cult of Kean might also serve as a model for an extended study of the effects of individuals on theatre and cultural history. Kahan does not organize his study chronologically, but rather divides it into seven chapters on different aspects of the actor's "mythography" (10), from boxing to sex.

Born to an actress-prostitute and raised by actress Charlotte Tidswell ("Aunt Tid"), Kean grew up at Drury Lane, learning the craft of acting behind the wings and debuting as an imp in John Philip Kemble's 1794 Macbeth. As "The Celebrated Theatrical Child," the young Kean performed with his aunt at Covent Garden and Drury Lane. Notoriously short (5'4"), Kean struggled during the early part of his adult career in provincial theatres, accumulating both debt and children, returning to London in 1814 to a surprisingly successful reception. In Chapter 1, "Bare-Knuckle Kean," Kahan discusses how Kean constructed himself as "a brawler who had fought his way up through the provincial ranks" (16). He further developed this sportive image by mandating in 1817 that Drury Lane stage prizefights on Monday evenings, and perhaps even boxing in matches after performing Shakespeare. Whether or not he actually boxed at Drury Lane is irrelevant; Kean "used the aesthetics of the boxing match to change the way his audiences judged his acting," characterizing himself as "an antiestablishment figure; someone who was taking perilous risks" in a new kind of theatre as a "spirited contest with a winner and a loser" (16–17). Kahan argues that this attitude was novel, in that Kean's career was measured "not for his skill in reciting Shakespeare, but for his ability to knockout his theatrical rivals" or to escape a fight due to "illness," which could be attributed to drunkenness, laziness, or actual sickness (17, 22). Kean even contrived a system to "fix" his battles with his stage rivals, through his fan club The Wolves, who enforced a program of "hissing and booing anyone that the star actor disliked" (29).

Chapter 2, "'The Throne is Mine and I Will Maintain It at Any Cost': Kean's Power Over the Regency Stage," examines Kean's crafty techniques to control Drury Lane, ranging from using drink as an excuse (perhaps legitimate, perhaps not) for a poor performance to prioritizing his career over the financial situation of the theatre. Relying in part on the previously unpublished letters from Kean's wife, Kahan explores Kean's "undisclosed backstage drama played out in a world of props, makeup jars, and sticky filth" (43). Chapter 3, "Kean and the French (Sexual) Revolution," centers on Alexander Dumas's construction of Kean in his 1836 play Kean, written three years after the actor's death. In this work, Kean is "an altruistic narcissist, preoccupied with helping the poor and with bedding as many well-bred women as possible" while reciting Shakespeare on the side and touting his working-class roots (74–5). According to James Winston, a staff member at Drury Lane, Kean frequently had sex during the entertainments...