Greater Tthan the Booths. Better than the Barrymores. More popular than the Redgraves. They were the glorious Kembles, a family of actors who controlled British theater throughout the seventeen and eighteen hundreds and whose influence extended throughout the Industrial Revolution into the mid-twentieth century. This is the story of the family whose extraordinary careers helped reassure the British and American public through the shocks and changes of the Industrial Revolution by creating a community within the theater where past and future could meet in the liminal performance of the present.