Bright Swords, the one-man play about famed African-American actor Ira Aldridge (1807-1867), was the best thing I saw at the 2015 Hollywood Fringe Festival. Written by Rick Creese and starring Ryan Vincent Anderson, the play was riveting from beginning to end, thanks to the crisp writing and directing, and above all to Anderson’s superb performance.
Aldridge, the only African-American actor represented in the Shakespeare Memorial at Stratford-on-Avon, was born in NYC and did his first acting there as part of the African Company headed by William Henry Brown and James Hewlett, but racial discrimination drove him to emigrate to England at the age of eighteen.
After making a shaky debut in Liverpool, Aldridge began to hone his craft and make a name for himself. Soon he was playing both black and white characters in such plays as Othello, Richard III and The Merchant of Venice. The continent beckoned, and Aldridge became hugely popular there, especially in Prussia and Russia (where Tolstoy was one of his admirers). Honors and riches came his way but never affected his abolitionist stance. From the stage and in his private life, he denounced the injustice of slavery and demanded that all those in bondage be freed.
Anderson used his commanding physical presence, strong speaking voice and acting gifts to give us a charismatic Ira Aldridge. Whether talking about Aldridge’s life or reciting some of his Shakespearean speeches, Anderson went from strength to strength, building to a finish that won him a standing ovation from the audience.
