Mary Malone’s
Actor in Exile: The Life of Ira Aldridge is an easy-to-read, sometimes meandering narrative of the nineteenth
century actor’s unique
career. While Malone does not eschew the personal facts or events of her subject’s life, the focus is clearly on his developing career and his gradual empowerment as an independent artist of international stature.
The book begins with a preface discussing the
different names by which Aldridge was known at different points in his career and subsuming them under his lifelong identity as an actor. The body of the book is divided into twelve chapters, with titles reflecting the periods of Aldridge’s life. The story is told chronologically, beginning in 1820, when Aldridge was thirteen years old. It ends with his death, though the last chapter also relates his legacy and summarily traces his children’s lives.
In telling Aldridge’s story, Malone moves back and forth from events and details of the actor’s life to discussions of the historical, cultural, and social context in which he lived. As such,
Actor in Exile is a rich tapestry of nineteenth century American, British, and Continental European societies. Such institutions as the African Free School, "tea gardens," and the London theater scene receive attention beyond their effect on Aldridge’s life. The theater as a whole is explored in its myriad aspects: The book is replete with dramatic quotations, synopses of plays, references to contemporary performers and literary figures, and descriptions of theatrical custom. Equally well conveyed are the social conditions of African Americans in the free United States prior to emancipation in 1863 and their corresponding conditions in Europe. Such passages of historical context are rich, detailed, and fascinating.
The focus, however, is on Aldridge, and though his story at times seems detached from the historical context and specific information is reiterated in different parts of the book, on the whole the elements of the narrative blend together well. Malone’s prose has a breathless, energetic quality achieved through the regular use of brief sentences and rhetorical patterns. The story builds well, tracing the various steps in Aldridge’s career: early aspirations, exile and apprenticeship in England, developing a repertoire, attempting the London stage, taking on traditionally white roles, touring across Europe, and gaining ultimate and absolute acceptance. During this progression, he is rightly viewed both as an artist and as a businessperson. The temporal sequencing is not precise; Malone does not mark each event with a date, and she sometimes moves slightly forward or backward in shifting focus from professional to personal to contextual concerns. The imprecision is not confusing, however, and she effectively uses foreshadowing to connect various phases of the story and contribute to a sense of unity.
Interspersed among the eighty-six pages of
Actor in Exile are ten captioned illustrations by Eros Keith, all depicting Aldridge, alone, in some performance pose from his long career. Six are in Shakespearean characterizations, of which three are Othello, the role for which he was best known. In addition, Malone has provided a relatively complete index to names, places, plays, and topics that appear in the text.