Historical Accuracy in Staging

Charles Kean (1811-1868)

Charles Kean, son of the great actor, Edmund Kean, was not his father's equal as an actor. But, beginning in 1850 when he took over the management of the Princess Theatre, he established himself as a producer of the first rate. For nine years, he staged lavish revivals of Shakespeare's plays, taking infinite pains to adhere to historical accuracy in costuming, architecture, and stage business. Even in plays with so little historical content as The Winter's Tale, he took great pains, informing his audience in the program that his staging of the piece "may be considered less an exhibition of pageantry appealing to the eye, than an illustration of history addressed to the understanding."