Event

The Tragedian

A celebration of the 200th Anniversary TO THE DAY of Kean's London Debut.
Prodigal Theatre's Tragedian Trilogy is everything you don't expect from a solo performance or historical biography. Original and found texts are montaged with stylized naturalism and heightened physicality breaking convention to make direct contact with the audience in a damning indictment of our own celebrity-obsessed society. The three plays separately examine ambition, fame, and celebrity. Together they tell the whole story of Britain's greatest ever actor.

TRAGEDIAN I The Rise to Fame 1789 - 1814
Bastard. Drunk. Actor. Genius.
On the 26th January 1814 Edmund Kean stepped on stage and changed British Theatre forever. He was a grieving, drunken megalomaniac. He was poetry in motion.

"Extraordinary, inventive, imaginative, dynamic" Steven Berkoff in The Times 'Beautiful' Scotsman; 'Astonishing' The Stage

TRAGEDIAN II The Fall to Infamy 1814 - 1825
Adulterer. Star. Madman. Fool.
Confronted by the reality of the fame he'd fought a lifetime for, the world's first trans- Atlantic celebrity hit self-destruct.

"Mesmeric" Prague Literary Review; 'Judged to perfection' ***** Three Weeks; 'Magnificent' El Pais.

TRAGEDIAN III The Decline to Legend 1825 - 1833
Revenger. Scapegoat. Father. King.
Diseased, dying, lonely and broken Kean has only his audience left to live for - and it's the audience that will kill him.

"A Dickensian masterpiece...a remarkable modern talent" The Stage "Embraces Kean's demons so wholeheartedly, you can see why Steven Berkoff has been raving about him" The Times