The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1908-02-01
WHERE AMERICAN AND
ENGLISH AUDIENCES DIFFER.
tBY ELEANOR RoBsoN.l

[BY ELEANOR ROBSON.1
There is undoubtedly a difference, and a
wide difference, between the audiences
one usually plays to here and those one
finds in London. Just what the difference
is it is hard to explain, but the American
player who goes to London feels its in
fuence at once, and it is this feeling, per-
haps. that amazes many players Of real
merit, who go from this side of the ocean
full of hope and confidence to give up in
despair and return home disappointed and
disheartened.
1 do not know if it is correct to say that
it is a difference in theatrical taste. l
think that il you read dramatic history
carefully you will find that the plays that
were really worth while here always sue
coed wherever they are presented. 1t seems
to me that the difference is more properly
in the method OF reception, in the way of
expressing approval or ~disappproval.
TIL difference between England and
America, 1t seems to me, is the same as
that between a young man a few years out
of college, who has gone into business, and
made a rapid success, and an elderly man,
who has made his success years ago, and
has been enjoying it thoroughly ever since,
To the young man everything Is new and
ITeS1, ana the WORTH lOOhS DIlShi did luii
of pleasure and gayety. He is hungry for
experience, and he hurries from one to an
other, only stopping long enough with
each to get a superficial sense of 1t. The
elder man has been through all that. II
has had his fill of experiences; few new
ones come to him now, and those that do,
he likes to linger over, to enjoy to the ut
termost.
50 it is that the American theatre-going
public, as a rule, regard the supericla
part Of a theatrical presentation partiou-
larly. They want action, movement, life
AS some one said the other day, they are
more emotional than their composers
across the ocean, and they want to have
their emotions stirred deeply. Not tina
they do not understand and appreciate the
subtle or the purely intellectual, but they
do not wish to stop and hin Anothel
and newer experience is waiting for then
somewhere, and they want to get on to 1t
They like to take their plays almost al
they do their luncbeons-quickly and have
lone with It. To them the theatre is
place of amusement purely. Its educa
tional side Is of secondary interest.
The London playgoer approaches the the
atre more deliberately than the American
Just as he approaches everything. He like
to nave his Jokes told to him slowly ant
quietly. He appreciates and enjoys then
more that way-and let me say that nj
does enjoy a joke or wirry line just a
much as the American. He takes 1t more
Acknowledgment is all.
AS to why some plays that have sue
ceeded here failed in London and VIC
versa, l think it is purely because they
were too local in their character to b.
understood in a foreign country. l am con
WINGED though, that If a play has the ele
ments Of human interest, e~verybody-ai
English-speaking people, at least, will un
derstand and appreciate it. l think such
play will succeed in one country as well a
another, provided. OF course, that it l
properly played. ! can readily UNDERSTAND
that certain situations may be better un
derstood in one country than in another
SO, too. with certain forms Of speech am
modes Of expression that are perfect
plain to us here in America. but are pur
Choctaw to tho Englishman. But thes
are things that the playwright who wishe
to write for the international stage mus
avoid. His situations must be under
standable in both countries and his Ian
guage, too. and then IL he has the note o
human iut~erest-genuine human interes
that really rings true-in his plot, his pla
is as sure OF success in London as it is i
New York; in San Francisco as in Boston
in Portland, Me-. as in Austin, Tex;
Melbourne as IN Chicago.