The Monitor-register. [volume] (Woodstown, Salem Co., N.J.) 1892-1972, 1897-08-27
PLAYING TWO PARTS.
INSTANCES IN WHICH AN ACTOR HAS
BEEN TWO MEN AT ONCE.

BEEN TWO MEN AT ONCE.
The prisoner of Zenda," "Corsican Broth
Which 1t Is Necessary For the Star to
Make These Quick Changes.
10 be able to play two parts in the
same piece-to portray, perhaps two
characters of totally different caliber-
is not an undertaking which many ao-
tors care to attempt 1t is only the ex-
perienced artist who may attempt the
feat with IMMUNITY, and even then,
though he may appear to the audience
to achieve his end without an effort,
there are many more difficulties in his
path than meet the eye of the habitual
theater goer.
Not only must the actor be possessed
of no small amount of histrionic talent,
but he must often call in the aid of an
understudy, whose duty it is to gull the
onlooker into the belief that their favor
lite is performing the impossible feat of
being i'll two places at one and the same
time. For i'll nearly every play of such a
character it is well nigh impossible for
the author so to arrange his piece that
the actor may never be called upon to
be On the stage with his double.
Any one who has been to see 1.-The
Prisoner of Zenda" performed at the st.
James theater, must have marveled at
| the lightning celebrity with which Mr.
George Alexander, a moment before the
drunken king of Ruritania, suddenly,
| as by some act of witchcraft reappeared
as Rudolf Rassendyll, clad in the ordi-
nary costume of the English tourist
Then, to every ones surprise, the supine
body OF the king was carried in so that
| to all appearances Mr.. Alexander was
| gazing upon his own person. In reality,
| of course, it was merely a lightning
change, and the understudy had to be
requisitioned to supply the person of the
| king.
A more famous case of double imper-
sonation, however, is that of 1.-THE Cor
sican Brothers," the first play perhaps
in which Sir Henry Irving gave us a
| taste of his wonderful talent.
In the first act-to give a slight re-
sumo of the play-the ghost of Louis,
! killed in a duel by certain Chateau
Remand in the forest of Fontainebleau,
appears to Fabicn, his brother. The seq
| ond act takes us to Paris, and through
varied incident to the death of Louis.
| Here Irving was Louis.
In the third act, however it is Fabien
who is once more before us, who has
constituted himself the avenger of his
| brothers death. He meets Chateau
| Remand and demands satisfaction. Re.
| maud is worsted and falls to the ground.
Then suddenly the ghost of Louis ap-
pears, and, to pcrsonate the spirit of
| the dead man, Irving had had to fly to
| the wings, make his way below the
stage aud take his stand upon the trap,
which conveyed him upward to the
| gaze of the thrilled spectators.
| How was it done? The audience was
amazed. Yet the explanation is COM
paralively simple: Irving stepped be-
| hind 'propl rty" tree. His double"
instantly filled his place. taking good
care not to face the audience when it
was necessary for him to confront the
ghost. Hence the lightning change from
mortal to spirit and the resultant be-
| wildcrment of tie beholders
Neither is the "Corsican Brothers.
the only play i'll which Irving has con-
trived to take double part and yet
nonplus the audience by the adroitness
of his metamorphosis.
| Those who are familiar with the
Lyons Mail" will doubtless remem-
Der the most telling scene in the play
Here GlLosc, the murderer, is in an
attic, gazing down upon the prepare
tioEs being made for the execution of
the innocent Lesurques-whose likeness
to the real murderer has brought him
to such terrible pass-an expression
of horrible glee upon his face, clapping
his hands as he sees the apparently
doomed man step forward to his death.
But his eXultation is premature. Lee
surques is reprieved, and the crowd
suddenly catches sight of the villainous
face of the real murderer at the attic
window. The door of the room is bat
tered in. Behind it stands Dubosc. The
wretch is dragged from his refuge, and
as they do so Irving Lesurques coolly
walks in upon the scene of turmoil.
| The door of the attic is made to open
inward, thus shutting Irving Duboso
from view of the auditorium. I'm mo-
ment he slips through a trap. His
"double" takes his place, to be hustled
| unceremoniously by the crowd of ''su-
| pers," whose duty it is also to conceal
| the man s face in case the fraud should
be discovered. Irving Lesurques can
hen come on in his new role.
But an actor has been known to play
two parts without the assistance of a
dummy.
In certain play it was the duty of
the hero to leap out of the window of
his room and to enter from door on the
opposite side OF the stage clad in differ
ent clothes, though otherwise the same.
This, however, was juggling pure
and simple. The actor dropped into his
second dress in much the same way as
an American fireman is reputed to
jump into his uniform. The costume
consisted CT but one piece with patent
fastening down the back, and as he
leaped through the window frame he
leaped into his clothes, which, so to
speaE, shut behind him and left him re-
habilitated.
Neither is the part of the understudy
one to be given to any ordinary super"
from the mass of warriors, countrymen
and the like that 60 to make up a stage
crowd. He must be possessed of no
slight amount of adaptability and smart
ness to enable his principal to go through
his arduous task without a hitch
Pearson's Weekly