The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-04-10

ted by pillars at the sides and topped by
a small towerlike structure from which a
trumpeteer stepped forth to announce
the beginning Of the play. These pillars,
or corner posts, it must be understood,
were not at the extreme sides of the
stage and between them hung curtains
which thus enclosed a part of the plat
form leaving the front and sides for the
use of the players in one scene while the
few accessories of another, chairs. tables,
etc, were being arranged behind the cur
tains. The drawing of the curtains there
fore revealed a second scene, while yet
a third place for the action of the play
was provided by a balcony at the back OF
the stage Practically there were three
stages, for In the old Elizabethan theatre
this balcony at the back was used for
various scenes, more or less In the air so
to speak, such as the balcony In Romeo
and Juliet, the ramparts of castle, or
the stage within a stage ON which, as IN
the players scene in Hamlet" a secon-
Diary performance-or play within the
rlay"-was given nominally for the bene-
fit only of the persons on the stage. IN
the tower above was stored machinery
for the operation of various stage de-
Vices, for the Elizabethan stage, although
bare of scenery in our modern scenes,
was nevertheless capable of producing
many effects which we now class as
spectacular.
This arrangement, as 1t has been
worked out by the Harvard authorities,
Is the most recent translation of the hints
that have come down to us from tn =
drawings of descriptions of the Eliza
bethan theatre which has no scenery
as we now understand the term and
which made therefore, more direct and
almost personal appeal to the imagination
of the audience. Overhead the pit of San
ders theatre was apparently open to the
sky as Shakespeare's own theatre would
have been except for the roof covering the
galleries and part of the stage But the
reproduction was not confined to the
stage proper for it included so far as
possible the entire interior of the little
Cambridge theatre, whose octagonel
shape and comparative smallness were
important factors In perfecting the por-
trait The octagonal galleries of San
ders had already much of lhe architec-
tural character that probably marked
typical Elizabethan playhouse, which
was undoubtedly far more imposing than
modern authorities for a long time be-
lieved probable. and with little imagi-
nation the audience might easily have
been pictured as transferred from the
present day to the time wnen Shakes
pears himself acted the Ghost In Ham
let
The Play and Actor.
So much has been said already of Mr..
Robertsons impersonation of Hamlet
that to enter into the important side
of the performance seems hardly neces-
sary. Ordinarily the play is the thing:
but in this case interest centers less
in how the actor would play the part
than in how the play would go off under
such unfamiliar conditions. To an au-
dience accustomed to the scenic excel
lence of modern Shakespearian perfor-
mances, with each setting a marvel of
the scene painters craft and the most
minor super arrayed in a costume
whose least detail has been as historical
ly accurate as scholarly digging into
musty tones and ancient prints could
make it, the idea of Hamlet produced
without scenery is naturally an incen-
tive to curiosity. The Harvard perfor-
nance was only modern in the accurate
dressing of the different parts, and in the
fact that Ophelia was acted by woman
In Shakespeare's day Ophelia would
would have been played by a boy and all
the characters dressed in the prevailing
fashion-an arrangement that the Eliza
bethan audience received in different
spirit from that In which a modern
theatre full of people would greet a Ham,
let in frock coat and striped trousers.
Allowing however. for the strange
ness of the almost bare stage this