Plays, Acting and Music: A Book Of TheorySymons, Arthur
Philosophy
Plays, Acting and Music: A Book Of Theory
Symons, Arthur
Actors; Music -- History and criticism; Theater
What these two players do is to give us, not the impression which we get
when we see and admire fine limitations, but the impression which we get
from real people who, when they speak in verse, seem to be speaking
merely the language of their own hearts. They give us every character in
the round, whereas with our actors we see no more than profiles. Look,
for contrast, at the Malvolio of Mr. Sothern. It is an elaborate
travesty, done in a disguise like the solemn dandy's head of Disraeli.
He acts with his eyelids, which move while all the rest of the face is
motionless; with his pursed, reticent mouth, with his prim and pompous
gestures; with that self-consciousness which brings all Malvolio's
troubles upon him. It is a fantastic, tragically comic thing, done with
rare calculation, and it has its formal, almost cruel share in the
immense gaiety of the piece. The play is great and wild, a mockery and a
happiness; and it is all seen and not interpreted, but the mystery of
it deepened, in the clown's song at the end, which, for once, has been
allowed its full effect, not theatrical, but of pure imagination.
So far I have spoken only of those first requirements, those elementary
principles of acting, which we ought to be able to take for granted;
only in England, we cannot. These once granted, the individual work of
the actor begins, his power to create with the means at his disposal.
Let us look, then, a little more closely at Miss Marlowe. I have spoken
of her Juliet, which is no doubt her finest part. But now look at her
Ophelia. It is not, perhaps, so great a triumph as her Juliet, and
merely for the reason that there is little in Ophelia but an image of
some beautiful bright thing broken. Yet the mad scene will be remembered
among all other renderings for its edged lightness, the quite simple
poetry it makes of madness; above all, the natural pity which comes into
it from a complete abandonment to what is essence, and not mere
decoration, in the spoiled brain of this kind, loving and will-less
woman. She suffers, and is pitifully unaware of it, there before you,
the very soul naked and shameless with an innocence beyond innocence.
She makes the rage and tenderness of Hamlet towards her a credible
thing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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