New-York tribune., 1912-02-11

plete illusion which conveys the mean
ing of reality. This is an effect too sell
dom seen upon the New York stage. es-
pecially when a play foreign in origin
and subject is presented. For the most
part, our stage French folk are hope
lessly unreal and what passes for eX-
hibits of French life in our theatres
is as unlike the model as chalk is un-
like cheese If Nine. Simone would re-
main here long enough to give us more
OF her favorite plays she would not only
please but instruct large number OF
theatregoers, and, possibly, II this is
not too much to hope for, no smali NUM-
ber OF stage managers.
Every one who has seen Nine. Slmone
at the Hudson Theatre has SAID tna' III
this play she shows deep feeling, that
she touches the heart. Well, that is not
too much to say Of her acting in the last
scene of the play. But what has not
been said, so far as the present writer
is aware, is that in this scene she eI-
presses deeper feeling than before ana
touches the heart because she gives her
self time TO produce the effect. In this
scene she shows what she has not shown
in the other scenes enacted by her in
this city, that she understands the ar
tistic value of repose. Here she is not
always restless, always busy, always
moving about, always doing something.
She obeys the injunction commonly to be
seen at rural railroad crossings. and
which many actors might observe 20
their great benefit-"Stop, look, listen"
Nine. Simone in the last act, when she
parts from Michel Aubier, gives herself
time to express what she feels. She is
| in those moments thoroughly human, and
not entirely remarkably clever French
actress who is a thorough mistress of
tho multifarious tricks of the French
stage; or, to put ii more gently, the IL
tricate technique OF the French stage.
In this scene she seems TO be thinking
less of the next thing that is to be done
than Of the immediate expression Of the
most poignant feelings at a tragic pas
sage in two lives. She takes time. That
Is the point which the observer wishes
to drive home And by taking time she
also expresses in clearer and more ad-
mirable English than in any other scene
which she has acted here the thoughts
that arc passing in her mind, the feel
ings that are supposed TO be tearing her
heart. Nine. Simone, clever though she
is, does not wholly appreciate. as indeed
few foreign actresses do when they
speak English, the difficult truth that
the best English Of the stage is not ex-
pressed wholly by pronunciation. Into
nation and infection have a good deal
to do with it. When, for public pur-
poses, you speak English with the into
nations and infections which you are
accustomed to employ for the same pur-
poses in other languages, difficulties are
encountered by an audience. 1t is easy
enough to understand what Nine Simone
is doing and is meaning. 1t is not al
ways so easy 10 understand what she s
saying. And yet no one can realize bet.
ter than she probably realizes that con-
versational speech, especially in for
eign tongue. Is one thing, and public
speech. that, for instance, of the stage,
is quite another thing. SO little atten-
tion. however. is paid by the American
public and by most Of the professional
observers Of acting TO the art of speech,