Macready

Reminiscences and Diaries

For over thirty years, William Charles Macready (1793 - 1873), was the preeminent actor of the Victorian theatre. His innovations in staging are standard practice today. He restored Shakespeare's plays to their original language, reversing two centuries of tawdry revisions. His rivalry with the American actor Edwin Forrest fuelled the fatal Astor Place Riots of 1849. Friend to Dickens, who dedicated “Nicholas Nickleby” to him, he strove to tame a volatile temper and bring dignity to a profession which society disdained.

His extraordinary Journal provides an intimate and unparalleled look at the life of a player.

American actor Thomas Caron, founder & director of Shanghai Shakespeare, gives voice to his unvarnished views, as trenchant today as when they were penned.

Mr. Caron's career extends over fifty-five years, on stages from Los Angeles to New York, to the UK, and China. He has performed the title roles of Hamlet, Macbeth, Richard II & also as King Lear in the Shanghai Repertory Theatre production. Caron has also starred as Prospero in 'The Tempest' and Cassius in 'Julius Caesar'. Caron has also directed productions of 'Twelfth Night' and Samuel Beckett's 'Catastrophe'.

As the Artistic Director of Shanghai Shakespeare, he has directed Mandarin productions of “Antony and Cleopatra,” “Pericles,” “Troilus and Cressida,” new Chinese translations of four short plays by Samuel Beckett, and an original adaptation of Beckett’s novel “Malone Dies,” the first productions of Beckett to have been performed in China with the authorization of the Beckett estate.

Mr. Caron received his training from the legendary teachers that issued from the Group Theatre: Sanford Meisner, Harold Clurman, Stella Adler, and Robert Lewis. 

In 2022 he had the honour of being invited to join the Players, the esteemed club for actors founded in New York in 1888 by Edwin Booth.