ABSTRACT
The greatest male stars of the period were Mrs Siddons’s brother, John Philip Kemble, and George Frederick Cooke. Kemble, a Catholic at a time when Catholics were excluded from many areas of British life, wrote plays when he was young. Born the eldest child of theatrical parents, Sarah Siddons served an acting apprenticeship in provincial theatres, though the small size of many of these may not have been an ideal preparation for her future work in Drury Lane. Siddons emphasised how much her performance owed to painstaking application and thorough study; yet she also, apparently, ‘felt’ the part. Most of the hallmarks of Siddons’s brilliance are noticeable here. She works in great detail, from one bit, or unit, to the next, letting each make its own impact; but each is controlled by the through line of the characterisation. She speaks clearly whatever the circumstances.
