I posted the other day photos of the travesty, black-faced sopranos Eugene and Francis Leon, and commented that there was nothing new in the current rash of shows involving travesty. It has all been done before. Here's another example.
Shakespeare in travesty. Oh plenty of actresses had a crack at playing Hamlet down through the centuries. Nothing novel in that. And I remember, in my youth, when the British actress Glenda Jackson decided to play King Lear. But I think Mrs Mary Macready (b Pennsylvania 15 May 1829; d Marshall NY 20 September 1873) of Pennsylvania was probably the most curious of them all.
Mrs Macready (and she was, indeed, Mrs, with a son) was a 'fair' actress who made her mark giving Shakespearian recitals. Those recitals went beyond the usual Hamlets and Rosalinds: Mrs M fancied herself as Shylock. And not just reciting the Jew's verses, but dressing for the occasion ..
Even Charlotte Cushman and Felicita Vestvali didn't boast such a wardrobe.
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| Vestvali |
Shylock was Mrs M's last appearance (1872). She died the following year, aged 44. I feel their might have been a figure on top of her gravestone. A weeping Willie (Shakespeare), perhaps ... or an angel in trousers?
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