Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-09-01
PLAYING TWO PARTS.
INSTANCES IN WHICH AN ACTOR HAS
 BEEN TWO MEN AT ONCE.


 Make These Quick Changes
 To be able to play two parts i'll the 1 same piece-to portray, perhaps two characters of totally different caliber- IS not an undertaking which many &C., tors care 10 attempt. It is only the ex- 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 histrionio talent, but he must often call ill 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 n two places at one and the same time For i'll nearly every play of such character 1t 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 ssThe Prisoner of Henda' performed at the St. James theater, must have marveled as the lightning celerity with which MT George Alexander, 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 one's surprise, the supine body of the king was carrie1 in so that to all appearances Mir. Alexander was gazing upon his own person. In reality, of course, 1t was merely a lightning change, and the understudy had to be reqnisitioned to supply the person of the king.
 4 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 his wonderful talent
 In the first act-to give slight re- sume of the play-the ghost of Louis. killed in duel by certain Chateau Renaud ill the forest of Fontainebleau, 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 Fabien who is once more before us, who has constituted himself the avenger 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 personate the spirit of the dead man, Irving had had to fly to the wings, make his way below the stage and take his stand upon the trap, gaze o1 tne, 'flYYa441esh shlp}91s 4upward to the
 How was 1t done? The audience was amazed. Yet the explanation is com paratively simple: Irving stepped be. hind property" 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- wilderment of tke beholders
 Neither is the "Corsican Brothers" the only play in which Irving has con- triyed to take double part and yet nonplus tho audience by the adroitness of his metamorphosis.
 Those who are familiar with the 'tLyons Mail' will doubtless remem- Der 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 of the innocent Lesurques-whose likeness f.a l.a hoe ls to such q 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. Le- 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 Dubosc from view of the auditorium. In a mo- ment he slips through trap. His
 NCRp1O tdhSc A@o ttNOCi eo bO AAS0ACN uneeremoniously by the crowd of "su- pers, whose duty it is also to conceal the mans face in case the fraud should be discovered. Irving -Lesurques can hen come on i'll 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 ot his room and to enter from door on the opposite side of the stage clad ill 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 of but one piece with a patent fastening down the back, and as he leaped through the window frame he leaped into his clothes, which, so to