Evening star., 1899-03-18
MertZ and r1er'tZ,
600 & 908 F Street.
THEATRICAL GOSSIP.

One of the most interesting, indeed. mys-
tifying. features of James X. Hackett's
performance of Anthony Hopes play
Rupert of Hentzau," is the lightning
changes"-to use the popular descriptive
term-he makes. 1t is not an exaggeration
to say that, perceiving the apparently i'm
possible nature of the work. the audience
becomes anxious as the actor himself
that he shall make the changes in time ito
take UP his cue Perhaps this state of
mind prevents them from becoming as alb
sorbed In the dramatic issues as completely
as usually is considered desirable by most
authors and actors. but there is no denying
that there is a counterbalancing interest
aroused when Hackett as the stoop-shoul-
dered monarch disappears and reappears
within minute as the gallant Rudolf.
How many times it is necessary for the
actor to make this shift of stage individual
lty is not known, but ii occurs often enough
to suggest the thought that Hackett en-
ploys pincher" to remind him physically
who he is and where he is at from time
to time. From the moment in the first act
the king departs through a door and Rudolf
appears shortly through a window. and
throughout the play, until the time the
monarch is killed, Hackett goes through
acrobatic and sprinting exercises that
should fit him for the professional sporting
arena
How he does it seems difficult enough
from the front of the stage, but in the dim
and dusty back of the footlights' the
process is seen to be a simple one. The
first garments the actor puts when he
dresses for his evenings performance are
part OF the simple ones of Rudolf, but a
he appears first on the stage the king
over these go the monarch's attire. The
dressers Of the actor then station them
selves in the wings at the point where the
king makes his final exit from the scene he
is then in, and when the actor gets into the
wings, beyond the vision of the audience,
these nimble-1ingered fellows seize Hackett
a = no n Gi naF inn
and in a jiffy the kingly clothes are re-
| moved. While one busies himself making up
the actors face as Rudolf, the other is ar
ranging the costume of the part Then
Hackett dashes off to the wing from which
Rudolf enters next, and the dressers take
the king $ garments off to the exit through
which the actor will return to resume his
higher role. 1t is ali part from the art of
! the actor in preserving the Illusion a mat
ter of moments, and when 1t is found, ii
often is, that the author had not put in
enough dialogue and action to permit the
actor to make the change, working as hard
as he may, then the author must prolong
the time by celebrating the words or ''busi-
ness" of those who hold the stage mean
time.
1t is wearing work at best upon the
nerves OF the actor, and, therefore, such
parts are not sought after, and, as a mat
ter OF TACT, authors OF modern dramas pre-
fer to steer clear of plots that require such
an interchange, ii tends to DESTROY the
atmosphere Of probability and the fllu-
stun that Ue SStdDiiSneQ IN the mind
of the audience. Nevertheless there are
many famous plays with dual roles of this
character, and only recently one of them
"A Brace OF Partridges," was done here.
Richard Mansfield's production of Ros-
tand's now famous play, "Cyrano de Ber-
gerac, In this city has again set rife the
discussion as to the pronunciation of the
name of this Gascon hero. Within limits
! the question may doubtless be left to the
taste OF the one who pronounces IL. For il
is often the case in the use of French names
In English discourse that choice is left to
the speaker whether he shall give them
their French sounds or make English words
OF them. There are some French names
which are always pronounced by English
speakers as If they were English words,
and there are some which never are while
w1thsregard to others the speaker NAV do
as he pieases. Thus nobody talking English
would ever pronounce Napoleon other
wise than as an English name and, on the
other hand, nobody speaking English would
try to Anglicize Dumas Quitting the ac-
cent on the first syllable and sounding the
So so much to show there need be no hard
and fast rule about Cyrano de Bereerac,
~st name, "Cyrano,' has been pro-
nounced, or rather mispronounced, In every
conceivable and imaginable style The ele-
mentary scholar In French is told there is
scarcely any accent on any particular syl-
liable af long word, but IL there is any,
that little belongs to the last syllable. That
settles the question of accent for this word.
If it is to be regarded as French. The three
syllables are of equal accent For the rest
the &C. is soft like IS" the '.y'' is like
short 81" the "a" is broad or slightly OBJ
scure, the regular continental "a unac-
cented. and the co. long. Now and then
this French pronunciation slips into CONVEX
sation but 1t is the obvious intention to
pronounce 1t for the most part as an Eng
lish word
Some people who ought to be good judges
of such things say that when the name is
Anglicized the accent ought to be ON the
second syllable and the word pronounced