Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-12-14
PLAYING TWO PARTS.
INSTANCES W WHICH AN ACTOR tsAg
 BEEN TWO MEN AT ONCE.


 Make These Quick Changes.
 To 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 ae- tors care to attempt It is only the ez- perienced artist who may attempt the feat with impunity, 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 histrionie 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 ite is performing the impossible feat of being in two places at one and the sama time For ill nearly every play of such q 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 "ThS Prisonere ef Zenda" performed at the St. James thoater. must have marveled at the lightning celer1ty with which Mir. George Alexander, moment before ths drunken king of Ruritania, suddenly. as by some act of witeheraft, reappeared as Rudolf Rassendyll, clad ill the ordi- nary costume of the English tourist. 11ba,, 4e a1te~rv r,,o3s e..w.9Yieo tba ..o body of the king was carried in so that to all appearances Mir. Alexander was gazing upon his own person. In reality, of course, it was merely 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 "The Cor sican Brothers, |" the first play perhaps in which Sir Henry Irving gave us a taste of bis wonderful talent.
 In the first Rot-to give slight re- sume of the play-tho ghost of Louis killed in duel by certain Chateau Renaud in the forest f FoHtainebieau. appears to Fabien, his brother. The sec 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 Fablen who Is once more before US, who has constituted himself the a7enger of his brothers death. He meets Chateau Renaud and demands satisfaction Re. maud is worsted and falls to the ground Then suddenly the ghost of Louis ap. pears, and, to persGHate the spirit Of the dead man, Irving had had to fiy to she wings make his way below the stage and 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 con paratively simple: Irving stepped be- hind property" tree His " double" instantly filled his place, taking eeod care net to face the audience when t was necessary for him to confront thf ghost. Hence the lightning change frou mortal to spirit and the resultant be wilderment of the beholders.
 Neither is the "Corsiean Brothers'i the only play ill which Irving has con trived to take a double part and yet nonplus the audience by the adroitnesa of his metamorphosis
 Those who are familiar with Che
 Lyons Mail'' will doubtless remen. eor the most telling scene in the play. Here Dubosc, the murderer, is in an attic, gazing down upon the prepara- tions being made for the execution ct the innocent Lesurques- whose likeness to the real murderer has brought him to such a terrible pass-an expression of horrible gIee upon his face, cIapping his hands as he sees the apparently doomed man step forward to his death
 But his exultation is premature Le- surques is reprieved, and tho crowd suddenly catches sight of the villainuus face of the real murderer at the attic window. The door of the room is bsk. tered in. Behind it stands Dubosc. The wretch is dragged from his refuge, and as they do go Irving Lesurquos cool1y walks ill upon the scene of turmoil.
 The door of the attic is made to open inward, thus shutting Irving Duboso from view of the auditorium. In mo- ment he slips through trap. His double takes his place, to be hustled unceremoniously by the crowd of "su- pers, whose duty it is also to coneea, the mans face in case the fraud should be discovered. Irving -Lesurques eaa hen como on in his new role
 But an actor has been known to play two parts without the assistance of 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 side of the stage clad in differ ent clothes, though otherwise the same.
 This, however, w4s 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 of but one piece with a patent fastening down the back, and as he ieaped through the window frame be leaped into his clothes, which, so K speak, 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 go to make up stage crowd. He must be possessed or nc slight amount of adaptability and smart ness to enable his principal to go tilrouse his arduous task without a hiscA, --. Pearson's Weekly.