THE STORY: As described by the New York Daily News,"… this work by Milton Geiger is filled with episode and circumstance as it tells of a great Shakespearean actor whose own life was as profound a tragedy as any of the dramas he played. As a narrative, EDWIN BOOTH is excellent…shows a ranting, hard-drinking, insane and imposing actor, Junius Brutus Booth, the elder, being cared for on his tours by his small son, Edwin. Father tells son he will never become and actor, for he is too slight of stature, and too lacking in a grand manner. Nevertheless, the lad determines to follow the stage. This is a splendid, exciting beginning…As an actor, he feels he has two handicaps-the great reputation of his late father and his own notion of how Shakespeare should be acted. Perhaps because he isn’t big enough to yell convincingly, he thinks acting should be quiet and almost casually natural…The stage…is so arranged with the dressing table, fragments of Shakespeare’s settings and a rocking chair which symbolizes a home anywhere, that changes of place and time can be instantaneous. And so it is possible for us to follow Booth through the remainder of his life and to his death at 16 Gramercy Park…"
