Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-01-24
ACTORS AND THEIR ROLES.
DO Performers Really Experience the Feel
mas Thsy Portray on the stage
ian Actors story.l


IAN Actors story.l
DO actors really ever feel the emo
tons they are supposed to portray on
the stage? l have very frequently been
asked this question, and in answer to
1t will give my experience in the emo
ton business. There have been times,
can conscientiously declare, when !
have actually gone out of myself, and
have had no existence for the time save
in the character have been represent
ing.
recall a series Of representations |
gave at the Theatre Royal, Sydney,
Australia, of Charles Reade's drama,
Drink, in which enacted Coupean, the
man who, from being a respectable
workman, sinks to the lowest depths of
human degradation through his ungoy-
ernable passion for liquor. Comment
ing on the delirium scene, the critic Of
the Herald Sydney concluded most
iattering notice by speaking of the
effect produced by the marvellously
natural twitching and trembling of
my fingers. Of the lurid fascination
in following my eyes, which he de-
scribes as almost starting out Of my
head, and concludes with a clever de-
scription Of the suicide of Coupean by
cutting his throat with the glass of tho
window OF his room. At the end Of
this terrible scene, on the first night Of
my playing it, was worked up to such
a tension as shall never forget. | lay
upon the stage when the curtain fell.
utterly Frustrated and had to be assist
ed to the wing to take the call. While
bowling to the audience | felt my knees
giving way beneath me, and / fell, for
tunately, into the arms of the stage
manager, who was watching me.
had become unconscious. A doctor
was sent for from the front Of the
house, who dOsed me and packed me
off TO my hotel. had the satisfaction
of being told by the gentlemen Of the
fourth estate that | had made a veri-
table triumph; but it was at a great
expense to my nervous system. ]
played the part for some four weeks
afterward and suffered in the same way,
though in a less degree, nightly, and
had at last to give it up, by the impera-
tive order Of my physician. | have
known many other actors who have
had like experiences, and who have
been compelled to relinquish the repet-
ton Of certain characters Of great emo
tional or other exhausting natures.
A lady member Of one Of my com
panies at the Princess Theatre, Mel
bourne, tainted four nights week, on
an average, at the end Of very touch
ing emotional scene in one of my plays.
where she learns that the man she has
married is that worst Of human gOr-
CONS, a matricide. AS the curtain fell
she was regularly seized with convulsiye
laughter mingled with sObbing, which
bali the time ended in a fainting fit.
This lady had to give up playing the
part, and was confined 60 her bed for
three weeks while recovering from the
mental and ply steal strain it hal i'm
posed on her.
Another curious sensation is that
which have experienced when play
ing Romeo. The student will remem-
Der that when the love-sck, banished
youth is informed OF the death of his
hearts idol, the poet has for some Ito
me- undivinable reason put nothing into
but hal
ton, And is it so; Then | defy ye,
stars after which he instantly goes
on with the d" do remember an apothe-
cary" speech. Here now is an in
stance Of where a man is informed
without moments preparation OF
the death of the Ito HIM dear
est object on earth. Clearly the
actor must convey something of
what person would feel on receiving
so terrible a shock. This has to be
done mutely, as Shakespeare has not
provided language with which to paint
his suffering and in this silent delinea-
ton of agony | have frequently worked
myself up to a state Of dizziness when
the audience has become nothing more
than a mist before my eyes, and my
heart has beat at almost double the nor
NAL pulsatiOn. Yes, indeed, cOnsclen-
tious actor does sometimes feel the ac-
tual suffering he is supposed only to be
representing.
\ NEW ZEALAND JULIET.
While on the subject of Romeo, |
remember that | once played Romeo in
Dunedin, New Zealand, to a very tall
and exceedingly ambitious novice as
Juliet. She had very little stage expe-
rience, but, like all beginners. she be-
lieved herself a veritable Slddons. Her
impersonation was limited to one con-
secutiye performance, and had | known
what ! should have had to go through
no money would have tempted me to
have become her stage adorer. An old
playgoer who witnessed the perform
ance assured me that he had only paid
four shillings for his seat: he CON
sidered be had received ten times
the value Of his money. But
to my Juliet: have seen many ladies
essay the role, and have been the lam
gushing Romeo to many more, but |
can confidently state that no artistic,
not even our own Mary. ever played
the part as Miss - did. Hers was
a Juliet peculiarly her own, and there
was an originality and freshness about
her performances that sent the audience
into ecstacies. The were particularly
affected when their heroine exclaimed
in piteous accents, "0h, Womeo, Wo-
meo, wherefore art thou, Womeo :: -
The idea of changing the r to W in her
lovers name, believe, originated with
this lady; and here again the student
will perceive how much more euphO-
NOUS the cognomen is made to
sound by the substitute Of the vowel
for the harsher consonant. But the
most refreshing departure from the
conventional in her playing Of the role
was the way in which she chung to my
poor neck at the parting scene. She
lowered good three inches above me,
and having in her excitement entirely
forgotten the sublime lines of her
outbor instead Of b;dd;no mo faraweli