Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-27
FRENCH DRAMATIC TASTE
ACTING AND THE PLAY. THE
THING, NOT THE ACTOR.
People Insist Upon Both On the
Stage-Actresses Must Know
How to Act.

From the Literary Digest
French people like acting, We like &C
tresses This difference. says Mrs. John
Van Worst, accounts for the contrast be-
tween the French theater and ours. and
makes the former superior to ours. so
long as our predictions lend their favor
to the personal she observes. I'VE shall
have remarkable stars: but not until the
art rather than the artist interests us
can We have national theater." She
makes the frequently repeated charge
that In America the stage seems salts
factorily occupied for the public only
when star is figuring. and perfectly
void during the absence OF the same
star" In France. on the other hand. the
star is looked upon as "a slight breach
of theatrical etiquette The star repre-
sents to this writer the quintessence of
self-consciousness, which quality she calls
1.-The curse of our retrospective puritan
ISM She explains that one element OF
primary education in France is the culti-
walton of selfforgetfulness: for its oppo-
site, circumstances. Is looked upon
not only as social but as moral defect.
The point is thus amplified In Mrs. Van
Forsts article In Lippincotts.
circumstances a Fault.
"'If the primary education bars out self
consciousness as a moral fault, 1t teaches
also the dangers Of ''personality' To be
a person. to stand for something by ones
self, is to forget momentar1ly the general
interests OF society. Come. away with in
dividual aspirations! tThus the French
primary education proceeds.) Let US be
each the anonymous part OF a general
whole. Let our entire interests be not
in ourselves, never in ourselves. but In
that whole. Now. the whole may be
marriage, it may be the family. it may
be the latest play composed for the most
boulevardier theater. The mileu changes
nothing for the principle The French, no
matter how or where they may be situat-
ed, work always for an ensemble
The difference in French and American
stage traditions is traced to a fundament-
al difference in the character and educa-
ton Of the two peoples. The writer puts
1t in these words:
I'm America every man, woman and
child has an ideal OF some sort. No mat
ter what the sort, the ideal is his own.
He believes in 1t. He Is ready to live and
die for tor to be disguised with himself
for not having done So He FORCES ahead
in his own particular line. There is room
in the land for his thought and his word.
This gives him hope. His hope is the
chance untried, and the chance untr.ed
is his ideal.
Now, the French are an old. old peo-
pie, not In the least degenerate-whoever
says the contrary does not know where
of he speaks-but old in the wisdom that
has years, generations, centuries Of ex-
perience to verify it. They have lived
as united nation on bit Of ground one
eighth the size Of Texas since before CO.,
lumbuS ever caught sight Of our national
shores.
''In young America everything social.
dramatic. ethical is under discussion. In
old France everything has been decided.
There is no untried. chance Obviously
this puts a restraint upon the Individual;
we find no longer the sporadic case, but
the distinct, accomplished type.
No Stirring Up in Public.
''And the effect upon the drama and
literature and thence upon acting is i'm
portant. The 'charactei-study' play, the
life studies like David Harum' and Mrs.
Wigs Of the Cabbage Patch do not ex
ist in France. because the characters
which inspired them are not there to be
portrayed. Again, the delightful and i'm
probable sort Of farce such as the Rogers
dramas like The Great Divide. hesvery
touching plays such as The Music Mas
ter are never written by the French
man for his national stage. French peo-
ple no more imam OiO people, 90 not ike
to roar with laughter. nor to weep real
tears, nor to be all stirred up in public.
"A word of illustration makes more
patent this declining propensity for real
emotion in a people SO mature that
word to them is sufficient. In Anglo
Saxon countries and in Germany we are
accustomed to see on the stage at the
same time one, two. three persons, a
dozen pretty girls. all dressed alike, all
doing the same song. act or dance.
"On the stage Of the cafe concert the
Frenchwoman appears alone. She sings
or speaks with almost no gestures, NOV
ing but little and conveying every shade
of meaning by her voice or her eyes.
I'm Italy, the oldest of countries we
are wont to call 'decadent.' the person
executing a number on a vaudeville pro-
gram is entirely hidden except for the
face, which appears in a frame, like some
portrait which has the power to speak,
but only Of such things as very trifing
change Of expression renders comprehen-
sible.''
Training to the point of appreciable per-
lection is the necessary preliminary to
an actress career in France. we are told.
1.-The French actress who has had no
training can have no CAREER" asserts Mrs