The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-01-23
What would be thought of the taste and inte

What would be thought of the taste and intel
ligence of two thousand or twenty-five hundred
respectable, we-dressed people, who should as
semble to witness the antics of an ape, having
gone to both trouble and expense in order to obtain
admission to the spectacle, and who should con-
tinue to find amusement therein, not only for
hours, but for evenings together? Yet, in what
respect is the performance dignifed made more
Ineligible when, instead of an animal which, at
least has the excuse of instinct for its mschevous
pranks, the object of attraction is a man trans
formed into the likeness of the BEAST and endeav-
oring to initiate its agility and cunning? Some
such cynical reflections might possibly have oc.
Cured to a lover of the Drama, who had CHANGED
to behold Holiday Street Theatre on Saturday
night, crammed and damned from top to bottom,
to see GABRIEL RAvEL in the part of PoNGo the
Ape. Certainly, it of the very best the
atrcal houses ever assembled in Baltimore. Dress
circle parquette and second tier were alike filled
and almost every square foot of standing-room
in the aisles and lobby had been occupied. And
so it has been for twelve nights past ever since
the RAvELs came here. ;umbers of people
We're turned away nightly for want of room to
accommodate them, while outside Of the theatre,
before the close of the performance, the street has
presented the appearance of crowded railway
station-the entire track from Fayette street to
Orange alley, being occupied with cars. Yet it
does not follow that educated people in Baltimore
prefer PoNGo the Ape to SHAKESPEARE, or that a
taste for pantomime has superseded the love of the
drama and fine acting. With greater proprety it
might be said that GABRIEL RAvEL is in his line,
better artist than the majority Of actors who or
dnarily attempt Hamlet and Lear, and that this
is the reason why pantomime has succeeded where
SHAKESPEARE might have been played to empty
houses The truth is, that educated intelligent
people, do not like medium acting; and most Of
the acting now a-days is medium. People had
better laugh at good pantomime, than be bored
by a stupid play They prefer clever
clown to a bungling actor. The RAvELs have
the merit of doing well whatever they undertake.
Although the entertainment they furnish is not Of
as high an order as that afforded by good play,
still it is infinitely preferable to the vexation ex-
perienced from witnessing bad one. When
GABRIEL whips napkin off a table deity not
to upset single glass bottle placed upon it, we
can admire and applaud his dexterty without plac-
ing his performance in the category with a vi
vid presentation of the madness of LEAR or the hui
mors of FALsTAFF. It is a not fair inference
from the houses which we have seen during the
past two weeks that the popular taste has degen-
Grated and become puerile, or that equal success
would not have attended dramatic representations
which, in their kind, should have exhibited equal
merit. Yet, any should ask why we do not
have such representations, it is not fair to hold
managers responsible for the deficiency. Good
actors, us we have said, are rare, and becoming
rarer This is no fault of managers, any more
than it is their fault that so few good plays are
now written. Nature is somewhat nggardly in
her distribution both of dramatic and histrionic
genius. In all the centuries since THEsPIs, in his
cart, enacted plays for the entertainment of Attic
vintagers, there has been but one SHAKESPEARE.
The stage at this day holds but one RIsToRI. It's
not in the power of managers to multiply tie num-
Der Of good dramatists or good tragedians. They
have done their part when they have given us the
best in each line that the age and the profession
afford. Practice may make a good juggler
orr good gymnast, but not poet or an actor.
So far, therefore, as the presentation of really
frst-rate plays of modern invention goes, and the
engagement of actors of the highest order of pro-
fessionai excellence, must wait until such plays
are produced and such actors appear. We cannot
hold managers responsible for the barrenness OF
the age. Taking, then the stage as it is, our aim
should be rather to make those improvements
which patience, industry, and taste, in the absence
of genius, are able to supply. For such improve
ments we see everywhere ample room and neces-
sity. Mediocrty we cannot help, but there is nc
necessity for becoming more and more mediocre
The common run of acting, at present is need.
lesslv bad. In all matters of stage appointments
scenery, dresses, the ordinary business of the stage
the rendition of minor parts or of Indifferent
plays, requiring no great genius to perform them
if it took none to write them, there is nc
reason why a higher degree, if not th
highest of excellence, should not be attained
Here, managers somewhat to blame, We
even here not exclusively at fault. If we would
have perfection in these respects, there must be thu
critical taste the part of audiences to exact it
and the liberal patronage to Justify the expendi
ture necessary to attain it. Unfortunately, mana
gers, for the most part, without the compulsiol
furnished by the one and the encouragement offer
ed by the other. They are without the stimuli
either of criticism Or support. This is the fault O
the educated, intelligent classes, who stay from
the theatre, or merely go to see pantomimes, ant
abandon the stage at other times to the patronag
of the gross, the uneducated and the vulgar
Thrown upon this portion of the community 70
the support which the others withhold, or onl
occasionally and sparingly extend it is not singu
lar that managers should consult the taste of tn
classes which are their paymasters and that tn
stage should sink TO the level of the audience
the latter is too ignorant to detect anachronisms il
dress aud too dull to be offended at them, it is not
in the appropriate costume of their parts, for tb
old properties will do as we'll and are cheaper thar
new. If a noisy clustering, exaggerated styl
of acting excites more applause than that which il
quiet, gentemany and scholar-like, it is not to b.
wondered that actors fall easily into viciou
habits of ranting and mouthing. To correct thes
abuses, there needs both the criticism and the pa
tronage of intelligent people. Once corrected, tn
theatre would become again, as formerly, al
agreeable place of resort. To work a reformation
so easy and so desirable should be at once anC
equally, the aim Of managers and the public.
--
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fva Re in sburnr III or md