Bastard. Drunk. Actor. Genius. On the 26th January 1814 Edmund Kean stepped on stage at Drury Lane and changed British theatre forever. He was a grieving, drunken, megalomaniac. He was poetry in motion…

[A biography of Edmund Kean] 2000 – Present

Written and performed by Alister O’Loughlin with direction and dramaturgy from Miranda Henderson, Lights by Chris Umney, Design by Peter Farley and a box of tricks built by Andrew Feest. This series of three shows was created between 2000 and 2005 and has been touring ever since,  both individually and as a complete trilogy; The Rise To Fame, Fall to Infamy and Decline to Legend of Edmund Kean. At the Edinburgh Fringe the shows took an inaugural Three Weeks Award and a nominee for Best Actor from the Stage. In Brighton the shows won Best Actor and were regularly reprised both at the Nightingale Theatre and for one special festival event on the stage of Brighton’s Theatre Royal. The shows have played multiple seasons at Milan’s Teatro Della Contraddizione, won Best Show at Napoli’s E45 Fringe, and travelled all over Eastern & Central Europe, recently being recognised with the prestigious award for ‘Excellence in Theatre’ from Bucharest’s Undercloud Festival.

Available for touring.

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“…A Dickensian masterpiece. No mere exercise in stamina, the trilogy reveals O’Loughlin to be a remarkable modern talent – actor and writer in equal parts.”

The Stage

“Impressive… epic… O’Loughlin embraces Kean’s demons so wholeheartedly, you can see why Steven Berkoff has been raving about him.”

The Sunday Times