3 - James Hewlett, Ira Aldridge and The Death of Christophe, King of Hayti

Summary

Meanwhile, some of the Georgian playhouses, and the dramas performed in them, were moving into a position where, in October 1825, they could accommodate Ira Aldridge onto a British stage. There can be no doubt as to the historical significance of a coloured man's repeat appearances in a London playhouse. Of course, as Donald M. Morales has argued, black American actors and playwrights – perhaps with the sole exception of the New York African Theatre of the early 1820s – have failed to prosper within their own country in comparison to poets or novelists. What has not been commented on before is the significance of Aldridge having elected to perform in one of London's most progressive non-patent theatres, even if it was, inevitably, within a regulatory system excluding him from performing Shakespeare and spoken drama.

Overviews of Aldridge's appearances in Britain, including the evidence afforded by contemporary reviews and the significance of his performing Oroonoko, the Royal Slave, have been given by Hazel Waters and Felicity Nussbaum. Waters's analysis of the first Times review gives a clear indication of its racist language, how it was replete with references to a monkey and a crossings' sweeper, and condemnation for his having a skin lighter than the colour of his black worsted stockings (‘little darker than the dun cow’). Indeed, the constant allusion in the review to his ‘complexion’ emphasizes important aspects of contemporary attitudes about race amongst the patrician class. One of the terms repeated by The Times reviewer is that Aldridge was a ‘theatrical novelty’, a ‘novelty of … spectacle’.