Kean

This Alexandre Dumas drama, penned just three years after the death of the great English Shakespearean actor, Edmund Kean (1787-1833), is filled with an immense joie de vivre, and is perhaps based on the playwright's own character. Kean, although an acknowledged player of great power and genius, led a very disordered personal life, associating with the lowlifes of the time, going on binges of alcohol and drugs, hobnobbing with royalty one minute and with mountebanks the next, brawling in a tavern or dining with diplomats. In the end, this fascinating, highly intelligent, likable, volatile, unstable, and passionate actor burned himself out, ruining his health and spirit, and collapsing on stage. One of Dumas's best plays, KEAN is filled with drama, humanity, and humor.