The times., 1899-07-24
STAGE PLACES.
The Qualities of Various Localities
Behind the FooiIighi~
(From the London Glohe.

lue ludSHtliE place, WHICH uTdWS- all tle
characters irresistibly to it. No mat
ter who or what they are, or how other
wise engaged, cGmo they must to that
particular place. Sometimes It is q mans
chambers not at all attractive in them
selves, being fTewsy. and with an aboI1i
rably comic, servant in evidence; yet
young women are drawn there quite alone,
married women are impelled TO call, on
absurd excuses. and all sorts of masculine
noses are poked in casually, they really
dent know why. Sometimes it is an Ordi-
nary spot in the country, without any
natural attraction beyond cabbagy trees
and a hard rock to .sit on. Yet everyone
you take any interest in Is moved to come
there whatever their walking powers nay
be, and however much they might prefer
to be elsewhere.
Sometimes ii is the abode OF poverty. and
the r.ost wealthy and highbred people
struggle for the deal chairs. 1t may be the
deck of a ship. or a coal cellar. or the roof
ot house, no matter: there the company
must foregather, or die. This magnetic
theory is supported by the fact that there
Is negative pole. as we'll as positive.
in certain stage places. II is astonishing
how instantaucously the hotel. railway
station. market place. village fair or other
thronged spot becomes deserted when re-
quired. Cne Instance a babel, the next
it is desert. You can only account for
this by concluding that the negative pole
has been applied, which repels everybody
except one or two persons who want 10
have bit CT dialogue and have accordingly
insulated themselves beforehand.
There is also to be noted curious in
stance OF permanent magnetism. 1t pos
sesses rocks and trees. Yol no sooner
sec a rock en- the staga than you know 1t
will attract some one to its shelter either
to listen to other people, business or 10
take potshot; while as for trees, whom
do they not draw behind them There is
no actor or actress VINO has arrived at
the journeyman stage of the business who
has not been drawn behind tree hun
dreds of times.
The stage street is a wonderful place,
though far from cheerful. As a playgoer
you may wander through such streets for
years and never see anyone who really
lives there. No tradesman comes to his
door to cape, no housemaid shakes her
duster out of the window onto your bead,
no splashing hanson, mateh seller,
whistling butcher boy or coster with a
decayed orchestra in his throat disturbs
the deathlike tranquility. 1t never has
more than two inhabitants and they--as
Pat would say-are complete strangers
who have just dropped along.
A dramatic character has only to walk
down street and he is sure TO meet an
other whom he wants to meet very much;
and he will meet no one else. And there
is a strange influence in that street which
impels both to be extra confidential even
beyond ordinary stage communicativeness.
which is saying a good deal. They ex-
change secrets of the utmost price. with
out even locking round TO see IL anyone
is listening, as they would have done had
they been in an underground dungeon or
the car of balloon. Nor need they. They
are really more private in the stage street
than they would be on the Jungfrau or in
the Imperial Institute. The hero and
Charles, his friend, the heiress and her
poor but honest lover, the wicked marquis
and the wronged orange girl. the Lord
Chief Justice and the briber with the bag
of gold, or whoever they may be, may open
their inmost hearts in perfect security
there. Unlike the stage street, which is
rather lugubrious. the influence Of the
stage country lane is entirely hilarious.
Whether the soil be clay or gravel 1t ex-
udes witticisrns, puns drop off the hedges,
and "chestnuts" from the trees. On come
two or three people, no matter what age
or condition, and they are at once COM
PEELED to be funny. They cannot help it,
neither the aged peasant and his wife, nor
the couple of tramps, nor the London
dude and the bucolic lass. nor John the
valet and Thomas the groom. Directly The
landscape of the country lane descends
from the skies, you may rest assured that
the comic relief is coming down the road.
and may shake reef or two out of your
wastcoat to make ready for tie laughter
TO flow.
Another remarkable stage place is the
elusive one, the one that cannot be found.
The principal one is, OF course. the hiding
-. tgf
ing letter or the link in the evidence of the
murder OF these there are every variety,
and you may build good play on any one
of them II you only know how. What more
exciting for example, than to locate the
missing Will somewhere up the chimney,
and see each character put his head up in
search, and bring it down again like a
Christy minstrel's; all in vain, till one,
sharpened by the advent of the last act,
finds it concealed inside the smoked ham
which is hanging there, against which
everyone has been bo5bing his head?
For the compromising letter there is an
equally fine assortment OF hiding places.
Perhaps the most pleasing Of all is that
invented by French dramatist- Hero
meets with accident; trepan necessary;
villain present disguised as male nurse;
| part of skull removed; doctor turns aside;
villain pops the letter into the cavity and
applies the bandages. After that, OF
course, the hero wanders the world in
search of what he has got in his head
the time.
There is also another kind of elusive
place heard of on the stage. The remorse-
full criminal says, Il will divulge all. but
| with a searching look around) not here"
He makes repeated attempts to divulse, IN
various places, but the right place always
| eludes him till near the end, when, OF
| course, it is found after all in the open
street. Another curious stage place is the
place which is impossible to everyone
save one. There is the raging sea, with its
! boiling waves, mountains high, and creak-
ing like nature, which no one on earth
could swim through. save one. There is
the sheer precipice. which no one on earth
| can climb, save one There is the high
tower from which no one. save one, could
| Jump without evolving mincemeat For
tunately, there is just that one, made for
| Just that place. and he always turns up.
Just in the nick OF time, too
There are indications that our drama is
! settling down in its old age There is not
| the former restlessness about it and dis
position for change of places, when dis
| tracted its frivilous youth. Hish-class
| plays are now enacted in one place, or
| two at the most. Act l, Mrs. Jones draw
| ing room: act ., the same; act }, the
| same; act 4, Mrs. Jones garden" is a
common formula, Thus extremes meet.
and the Greek unity Of place is avenged
| of all its time-honored outrages. No Won
| der the drama is getting little tired.
| after dodging about all over the gazetteer.
up in balloons, and down in coal mines
| and diving bells. OF course. the robust
| drama still likes exercise, but !: is dis-
| tinctiy low class. In the higher walks.
| place grows of less and less consequence,
and may ultirA,.1y disappear altogether,
| til we come 10 The pure uncoEdItiOned