New World Shakespeare Company Launches The Edmund Kean Theatre

 For the 2026 season, New World Shakespeare Company is partnering with a new company in its inaugural season: The Edmund Kean Theatre. Edmund Kean is run by artistic director David Sessions, who came to New World's production of Hamlet directed by and starring Élise Hanson as Hamlet, and was so impressed by the talent that he called all the male members of the cast and asked them to be in his first production at The Edmund Kean Theatre: An Evening with Shakespeare. 

Who is Edmund Kean? 

Mr. Edmund Kean was an actor who lived from 1787 to 1883. He made his first stage appearance at the age of four in Noverre's Cymon, in which he played Cupid. He soon became a draw and an audience favorite, and was sent to school by some benefactors. 

He would go on to study pantomime and Shakespeare under actress Charlotte Tidswell, his interpretations completely different than the actors who came before him, people like Burbage and Kemble. By age 14, he was a contracted player, taking on roles like Hamlet, Hastings, and Cato.

He was a polarizing yet popular actor, once mentioned in a letter from author Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra: "Places are secured at Drury Lane for Saturday, but so great is the rage for seeing Kean that only a third and fourth row could be got." His takes on characters like Shylock and Richard III solidified his standing on the stages of London. 

Local playwright Charles Bucke wrote a play for Kean, The Italians or The Fatal Accusation, which Kean at first rejected, thinking the role to small for him. After Kean purposefully sabotaged a performance of another writer's work, Bucke pulled his play from consideration, publishing it with a preface describing the incident.

Kean began acting in New York City in 1820. He brought back the tragic ending of King Lear, which since 1681 had been played with a happy ending. It was not well received but by one critic, who found that reverting to the original ending made the play "deeply affecting." Discouraged, Kean returned to playing the role with the more popular happy ending. 

His final stage performance was in Covent Garden, where he played Othello opposite his son Charles Kean as Iago. In Act III scene 3, on Othello's line, "villain, be sure," he broke into tears, saying "O God, I am dying. Speak to them, Charles," before collapsing into his son's arms, losing consciousness. He died mere weeks later in Surrey.

Though small in stature, Kean left a mighty impression on the theatre-goers of his time. Of Kean, theatre critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge said, "Seeing him act was like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning."

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