#monodramatic entertainment

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Memoirs Of Charles Mathews Comedian By Mrs. Mathews VOL I-III LEATHER COMPLETE IN FOUR VOLUMES SCARCE ABOUT CHARLES MATTHEWS Charles Mathews (28 June 1776, London – 28 June 1835, Devonport) was an English theatre manager and comic actor, well known during his time for his gift of impersonation and skill at table entertainment. His play, At Home, in which he played every character, was the first monopolylogue and the defining work in the genre.

For several years Mathews took bit parts, but on 15 May 1803, he made his first London appearance at the Haymarket, as Jabel in Cumberland's The Jew and as Lingo in The Agreeable Surprise. As a continued public success, he was taken on at the Drury Lane. His gift for mimicry enabled him to disguise his personality without a change of costume. His versatility and originality were displayed in his one-man show, or "monodramatic entertainment," entitled At Home or Matthews at Home, which he initiated in the Lyceum Theatre in 1808. Leigh Hunt wrote that his table entertainments "for the richness and variety of his humor, were as good as half a dozen plays distilled." The show combined mimicry, storytelling, recitations, improvisation, quick-change artistry, and comic song. In 1822-1823 Mathews toured the United States (US) to great success. During his stay, he developed a number of impressions of American types. One of these was the African American, said to have been based on the American black actor James Hewlett, who performed Shakespeare roles at the African Grove. In his next show, A Trip to America, Mathews sang a version of the popular slave freedom song, "Possum Up a Gum Tree", performing in dialect and possibly in blackface. One author called him "the paterfamilias of the Yankee theatre and the progenitor of all native American dialect comedy." Publisher: Printed by Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty, London Copyright: 1838-1839

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