''The Revenge'' is a 1721
tragedy by the British writer
Edward Young, set in a mostly undefined region of 16th-century Africa under Spanish rule. It concerns the character of Zanga, an African prince who becomes cruel after his experiences in slavery.
Although initially it did not enjoy the same success as his previous play ''
Busiris, King of Egypt'', it later became a much-revived work during the eighteenth century particularly popular because of the
Othello
''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cypru ...
-like role of the
Moorish
The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages.
Moors are not a distinct or se ...
character Zanga.
John Philip Kemble revived the work briefly in 1798 before
Edmund Kean in 1815 did so with great success and it became part of his
repertoire.
[Kahan p.72]
The original
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster.
Notable landmarks ...
cast included
Barton Booth as Don Alonzo,
Robert Wilks as Don Carlos,
John Thurmond
John Thurmond (died 1727) was a British stage actor. To distinguish him from his son, also an actor named John, he is sometimes called John Thurmond the Elder.
His earliest known stage performance was in 1695, when he played in '' Cyrus the Grea ...
as Don Alverez,
John Mills as Zanga,
Mary Porter as Leonora and
Christiana Horton
Christiana Horton (c. 1696 – c. 1756) was an English actress.
She first appeared in London as Melinda in ''The Recruiting Officer'' in 1714 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Here she remained twenty years, followed by fifteen at the ...
as Isabella. The work was dedicated to Young's patron the
Duke of Wharton.
The character of Zanga was portrayed by the African-American actor
Ira Aldridge
Ira Frederick Aldridge (July 24, 1807 – August 7, 1867) was an American-born British actor, playwright, and theatre manager, known for his portrayal of Shakespearean characters. James Hewlett and Aldridge are regarded as the first Black Ameri ...
in 1848, and received favourable reviews, although critics were less kind to the play itself. For example, the ''
Era'' said that "As Zanga he is exceedingly fine, looking the character of the Moor to perfection and acting it with great power and correctness. For the tragedy itself we have little regard."
References
Bibliography
* Baines, Paul & Ferarro, Julian & Rogers, Pat. ''The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Eighteenth-Century Writers and Writing, 1660-1789''. Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
* Burling, William J. ''A Checklist of New Plays and Entertainments on the London Stage, 1700-1737''. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1992.
* Kahan, Jeffrey. ''Shakespeare Imitations, Parodies and Forgeries, 1710-1820, Volume 1''. Taylor & Francis, 2004.
* Nicoll, Allardyce. ''History of English Drama, 1660-1900, Volume 2''. Cambridge University Press, 2009.
* Worrall, David. ''Harlequin Empire: Race, Ethnicity and the Drama of the Popular Enlightenment''. Routledge, 2015.
1721 plays
British plays
West End plays
Tragedy plays
Plays set in Spain
Plays set in the 16th century
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