The San Francisco call., 1904-10-02

Was movable stage scenery used or
not used in Shakespeare's day? Ben
Greet's coming Shakespearean season
4 shall Cd. W by the time this ap-
pears be outside Of an unlopped
Hamlet'-suggests anew the ever un-
settled question. Curiously silent or
at odds are the authorities on the sub
ject DIr. Greet. It viii be remembered,
introduced several pieces potted
trees and the like, into his last years
Twelfth Night" The best tradition
bears him out.
To 90 70 Ny. Shakespeare himself the
evidence OF set scenery seems almost
.rrefutable- Earlier, even, traces Of its
existence are 70 be found. There.is in
existence an edition Of Kyd's Span
ISL Tragedy" first performed in 1885,
containing a woodcut that would seem
20 prove the point In the play the
hero. HOratio, is hung TO a tree and
cut down by his mother The print
represents him hanging TO the tree or.
rather 70 a kind OF vine hung trellis.
True. the edition Of the play is dated
1913; that leaves a period Of thirty
years between the printing OF this edi-
ton and the first performance. But
supposing the trellis device to have
been used at the dramas first produc-
ton. there is no reasonable doubt that
Shakespeare, the master craftsman,
availed himself OF such and other ex-
istent stage facilities.
Nay, Il IS not 70 be doubted that
Shakespeare improved upon them We
md Ben Jonson, like many other critics
of to-day, deploring the use Of elab-
crate stage settings as detracting from
the classical simplicities OF the drama
He calls IL gallery play, as DO We He
comments upon -creaking throne"
that with clumsy magic falls through
the air-remember in "Cymbeline" Ju-
riter descends from Olympus astride
of an esglei Without stage settings Of
rather elaborate kind one cannot
again picture The Tempest as Great
ing illusion, in the tricks Of Ariel, the
ship wreck. Prospero's cave. It has
been suggested that the invisible Ariel
sang 10 the mariners from the gallery
that backed the Elizabethan stage. The
disappearance Of the banqueting table
invites again TO belief in the existence
~ The practicable apartment under the
rsi ised stage. From here, too, may
have first risen Hamlet's ghost. from
here also may have been pitched up
poor Yoricks skull. and where else
would have been Ophelias grave?
There is ample warrant again for
ar. Greet's Twelfth Night box tree
in the play. II is difficult TO conjec-
ture how else the scene between Maria
ard Sir Toby and the other jovial con-
srirators could be handled. And the
forest Of Arden, Surely not upon air
Orlando hung his love verses to Rosa
lind, Nor is il possible 70 believe that,
like The Wall" that Pyramus and
Thisbe whispered through. the trees
were men. Several times the use Of
something representing a green bank
IS indicated. This green plot shall be
our stage" Ounce hath il, This haw-
thorn brake our firing place"
The question of the use Of the back
dgop" may probably never be deter
mined. The well known Dutch
drawing OF the Swan Theater, done in
1896 shows the cupola over the stage.
This, very plausibly, has been sug-
Eested as the scenic loft, from which
back drops, heavenly visitants and the
like descended They used the back
drop. Il Will be remembered. at Stan
ford II the English Society's excellent
production Of The knight OF the
Burning Pestle."
Mr. Greet has decided upon
Twelfth Night" with Miss Crawley
as Viola and himself as MalvoIo;
Much Ado About Nothing" Mr..
Greet as the Benedick, and "As You
Like It." with Miss Crawley as Rosa
lind. as the plays OF the season. There
may also be given the Comedy Of
Errors" Merchant Of Venice"
Masks and Faces" and "She Stoops
70 Conquer"
Two names. those Of Marjorie Ram
beau and W. J. Stack. in the cast Of
Captain Darlington" ct the Majestic
this week. remind one OF the new the
ater as yet another avenue for local
talent Perhaps Of all recent local
stock companies that have turned out
genius the Frawleys lead. Many good
players again have spoken their ''car-
riage waits, me Lord" at the Alca-
zar. The Tivou has added Alice Nell
sen and several other clever folk to
the singing list, and the Central has
furnished a famous black alpaca he
roine or Two. Comes now the Ma
5esuc with history to make and an
enTable opportunity TO make It The
theater Itself could hardly be better
adapted 70 dramatic purposes, both
fore and aft OF the footlights. Man
ager Bishop and Manager Oliver Mo-
rosco could not be more alertly and
intelligently determined upon success.
II IS another story that their initial