A still more striking instance has been seen in _L’Illusioniste_. Here the first act shows the stage of a music-hall and presents three actual “turns.” We, the actual audience, become the music-hall audience, and again there are actors scattered among us to help the illusion. They are addressed by the conjurer and answer him; a lady in a box throws him ardent glances which are returned with interest. But one of the “turns,” an act by acrobatic clowns, has absolutely nothing to do with the play; it is there purely for its own interest, a substantive performance. This shows, what we knew before, that revolutions run to excess. We are so engrossed by the clowns that we are tempted to forget what we are there for, to see a play. Anyhow, it is a most amusing innovation, this conversion of the actual stage into an imaginary stage within the play, and of the actual public into an imaginary public taking part in the play. It is a real enrichment of stage resources. But there are obvious dangers. One I have just pointed out, the danger of introducing irrelevancies for their own intrinsic interest, which tend to impair the artistic unity of the play. Another is the danger of applying this method to cases (as in _Hamlet_ and _Cyrano_) where the real centre of interest is not the mimic play but the mimic audience. Imagine the whole stage given up to the _Mouse Trap_, with the front row of stalls occupied by the courtiers, and Hamlet and Ophelia in one box watching the King and Gertrude in the opposite box! That is an extreme instance, which traditional respect for Shakespeare will probably save us from; but some ambitious producer will probably try this game with some modern play, and then I predict disaster. PLAYS OF TALK