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Page 78 The reviewer’s rhetorical weaving and bobbing leads one to ask: how could an actor with such scant knowledge of “bye-play” and “stage-business” infuse himself with sufficient “vitality” to seize Iago ‘‘by the throat” and then give “energetic full toned” justice to the heaving pentameter iambs of Shakespeare’s blank verse, despite a “delivery…somewhat cramped”? The Hurkaru reviewer crowns the ambivalence of his response with this comment on the final act: “In the beautiful soliloquy ‘It is the cause, my soul,’ the actor was scarcely audible, and that vile lack of turning his back upon the audience told greatly to his disadvantage” (Mitra 1967:208; referring to Othello 5.2.1 ff.). Why was Addy’s back turned to the audience in these final moments of the tragedy? Could the Native Addy, despite the license of drama, be seen by the public to kiss and hold Desdemona, played by the English actress, Mrs. Anderson, and breathe her “balmy breath”? (Othello 5.2.16). Reviewers in the colonial English press curiously ignore the enactment of potential miscegenation on the stage, a subject that was confronted by Coleridge and Lamb in the metropolis but that perhaps was unspeakable and taboo in the colonial setting. While their silence on the subject speaks volumes, we will never know the reasons for it. Other English reviewers of Addy’s performance also veered between complimenting the Native actor’s occasional “good” delivery and physical acting, on the one hand, and castigating him for the lack of the same merits, on the other. The Englishman, another English language daily, describes the Native actor as follows: Scarcely a line was intelligible, and this did not arise from the low tone of voice; Othello spoke quite loud enough, but he “mouthed” too much.… Taking it as a whole, we consider the performance wonderful for a Native. (Mitra 1967:210) Despite their criticisms, however, these accounts also testify to the “thunderous applause” of the audiences at the end of the show. So how did the saga of the Native Othello end? Barry’s success with the venture led him to attempt a reprise on September 12, 1848, but this second performance was shot down by the English reviewers. The same Englishman that had less than a month ago placed “great credit on [Addy’s] industry and performance,” wrote on September 14: |
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