Astor Place Riot
As Astor Place Riot one is rebellion called, which on May 10, 1849 during a performance of the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare in New York inflamed. The riots left at least 25 dead and over 120 injured.
Process and background
The riot was triggered by competition between two famous actors, with social tensions and anti-British resentment in the background. The American Edwin Forrest enjoyed great popularity among workers, while the British William Charles Macready was valued by the wealthy and the literary elite.
Forrest played the title role in Macbeth at the Broadway Theater . On a US tour, his British rival Macready appeared in the same role at the Astor Opera House just blocks away . On the evening of the first performance, around 20,000 Forrest supporters gathered in front of the Astor Opera House and cursed the arriving audience. Forrest partisans, who bought hundreds of tickets for the performance, booed and whistled Macready, threw trash on the stage and demolished the seating. When the performance was over, the Brit escaped from the theater in disguise.
To cope with the uproar, the city government convened the National Guard . After stones were thrown at the theater, some protesters tried to set the building on fire and the audience escaped from the theater, the National Guard shot at the crowd. At least 25 dead and over 120 injured were counted.
These incidents are at the root of the popular superstition among actors that pronouncing the play's title Macbeth brings bad luck. The drama is dear by many actors as The Scottish play (The Scottish Play) refers.
literature
- Nigel Cliff: The Shakespeare Riots: Revenge, Drama, and Death in Nineteenth-Century America . Random House, New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-345-48694-3 .
Coordinates: 40 ° 43 ′ 47.73 " N , 73 ° 59 ′ 31.39" W.