The record-union., 1896-04-20

me- the theater, as it exists in Cal
| cutta, interested me as the source of
| my opportunity to have an intimate
acquaintance with the rupee. In Cal
| cutta there were four European thea
| terS and a circus last winter. They
| also have three standard native thea
tiers. The audiences of the native thea
| ters are composed Of as high class of in
| tellects as a Western audience, though
its manner of intellectual demonstra-
| tion be different. The people are de-
voted to the classic drama. Plays are
produced in Bengalese, the Indians
having a classic dramatic literature of
their own, as the Greeks had. The man
| ager of the Star Theater in Calcutta is
| a Cambridge mana man of large cru
dition and fine scholarship. He has
done much for the development of mod
| ern European methods on the stage of
the East. He is perhaps the most in
teresting man that / know. Here is
his photograph.
This man translates the dramatic
classics of other languages into Ben
| galese. He has lately introduced or
! chestra (as known to the civilized in
cOntradistinction to the Chinaman) into
his theater. The adaptation of Shakes
peare to Bengalese conditions often pro-
duces interesting results. For instance,
I say a production of Macbeth under
these circumstances, which appealed to
my Western comprehension of a joke,
| more or less. l saw as Lady Macbeth
short, fat, barefooted lady, with long,
| floating black hair, wearing a dark
;ol,
custom convinced her was toilet enough
| for hot night in Calcutta. Under
| these conditions did she request politely
that the dagger be given her. without
| turning a hair. Macbeth, who stood
constantly, and with both feet upon the
order Of his going, wore his own dark
| skin, while to preserve the amenities
| and be thoroughly Scotch and throw in
plenty of local color, he wore very red
wig. He did not wear enough else to
| pay for description.
Perhaps these people can be the most
initiative in the world l know that
! this is true of their ta;lors, or dress
makers. The circumstances of the gar
ment that was copied, even to its ink
/ spots and patch, occurred to me in Cal
cutta. 1 sent a gown that was badly
worn, but which pleased me, even in it's
cid age and decrepituda, to be copied in
| new goods by a Calcutta tailor. My in
| structions were fulfilled to the letter.
" hen that gown came home there was
| not a hole or a darn IL the old gown
lacking. 1. am keeping it to show to
that Calcutta tailor one hundred years
from now.
But to return to Shakespeare! A
| black company, playing to an appre-
ciative black audiencei 1t was very in
teresting. The Zanana wCmen-women
/ belonging to a hign Indian caSte--sit
apart, in a gallery, in boxes, before
which is stretched d black gauze,
| through which the giean of dark eyes
is seen. Oh, that charm of the esoteric!
| In diction, the actor in India is de-
clamatory-never colloQuial. 1 saw
there a performance Of 'Sakoontala'
cThe Lost RingO which has bee done in
| English by Sir Monier Williams. The
story is of an English tea planter, who
alienates the affections OF Maharanee
"a woman of high caste Princess.
She becomes anoutcast and the rest of it.
The Englishman is discovered, and ret
! ribution follows. In Calcutta, the Eng
| lishman is hustled onto the stage amid
| the wrath of locally dressed actors.
| The Englishman had his black face
painted white, and wore desperately
| red wig, while he was clothed in the or
binary garments of the Englishmen
which were put on evidently without
much rehearsal. He spoke broken Eng
| lish. The rest Of the cast were half
| naked. 1t was a grotesque perform
ance.
Now come to Rangoon, in Burmah,
| with me. l played there two weeks,
and saw no native theaters. Here the
women seemed to me much like the
japanese women. They seem to dem
onstrate a keen appreciation of color
effects. You will see groups Of girls,
| five or six together, who seem to have
arranged themselves with consideration
or the color in their gowns. This is
doubtless accidental, yet 1 have seen
one girl change place with another, call
ing attention to an incongruity of color
arrangement. These girls seem invari-
ably gay, laughing and merry. Here
knew midnight visits TO the famous Pa
gcda. Such glorious nights! Lighted
lby brilliant moon, and moving amid a