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Cover of Ion

Ion

Thomas Noon Talfourd

Length
2 h 30 min
Chapters
5
Language
English
Genre
Tragedy
First published
1847

This drama, set in Ancient Greece, was written by a Victorian lawyer who was a close friend of Charles Dickens. When collected into book format, “The Pickwick Papers” was dedicated to him. As a Member of Parliament, Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd introduced legislation protecting the copyrights of authors. This play was originally printed only to be read as poetry. However, it attracted the attention of William Macready, who mounted a successful production of it at Covent Garden in 1836. The drama became a much bigger hit a few years later, though, when it was revived with actress Ellen Terry taking over the part of the tragic hero, Ion. Charlotte Cushman and other leading ladies of the day took advantage of the craze for “breeches roles” and donned togas to play this doomed young Grecian noble. (Summary by Kelly S. Taylor)

Cast List

Ion Kelly S. Taylor

Adrastus Tomas Peter

Medon Alan Mapstone

Ctesiphon ToddHW

Cassander Greg Giordano

Agenor Wayne Cooke

Cleon Will Forbis

Phocion Andrew Latheron

Timocles Phil Schempf

Crythes James R. Hedrick

First Soldier Jake Malizia

Second Soldier Jim Locke

Irus Joanna Michal Hoyt

Clemanthe Jenn Broda

Abra Wendy Katz Hiller

Stage Directions Larry Wilson

Chapters

From LibriVox, read by volunteers and in the public domain. LibriVox page (opens librivox.org), the text (opens archive.org), all files on the Internet Archive (opens archive.org).