Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1913-12-06
ADJUSTMENTS
ATTENDING THE THEATRE In 1913
Play GOi3g in London Three Hundred
Years Ago

VI SldCC SlAlScu uuuuI Gl anu tllI loGlI
| precisely three hundred years ago,
and yourself, a good citizen of the
fair city of London. You have just
| received an invitation to attend ten
theatre, Globe, Of COURSE
where play by Will Shakespeare is
being shown that concerns itself with
life in ancient Rome.
Needless TO say you have accepted
the invitation. Being quite a fire.
quenter Of taver1s and coffee-houses
you are we'll aware that the vogue Of
Master Shakespeare is greater even
than that of Augusts Thomas or Ed
ward Sheldon in this the twentieth
century, and you are anxious to see
his play about Julius Caesar"
So shortly after noontime you meet
the good friend who has proffered
you the invitation and start on your
way to the Globe theatre. A matinee
performance then is it? Yes and no.
For three centuries ago all theatrical
performances or exhibitions as they
were commonly styled, occurred in
the aftet1oon. For this is we'll be-
fore the Ella of electric lights and gas
illumination, and perforce daylight
had to De utilized, else theatricals
would have been sorry spectacles.
The world knew nothing then OF Gay
White Ways and white lights"
Presently you come to the banks
of the River Thames, and find places
for yourselves along with some half
dozen others of your fellow citizens,
in capacious ferry that is tied to
the shore And shortly the Oarsman
commences his task of ferrying you
across the broad river. AS you float
across the blue expanse of water, you
cannot help reflecting upon the diff
ference aetween this mode of jour-
neying to the playhouse, and that of
the modern world, with its limousi-
nes and taxicabs and trolley cars.
Once you reach the other shore,
short walk confronts, you and then
you arrive at the Globe, with its
gray fla;,s indicative that perform
ance is :.pout to take place, flying at
it's mast head. The price of admis-
sion is .ix.pence, which is about
twelve cents in the &c coin Of this coun-
try, and You think to yourself what
difference between the SCALE of
price thea and in the theatres of
London and New York today.
There are always several hundred
people within the theatre, noisily talk
ing and testing. The building Itself
is not at all the sort of place we OF
today denote as a theatre. 1t re-
sembles more than anything the en-
closed bleachers at "a baseball park,
"a circular series of canopied stands,
with a stage, partially open to tins
sky butt in on one side. There IS
no curtain ON the stage, nor any
scenery. Just a bare stage, with a
crude ent, ance at the rear. Along
bot hsides of the stage are seated
the daadies of London-the idle nobi-
lily. They are the most familiar cir
cmustances you have noted, for al"
though by 1913 they have long ago
been banished from the stage proper
to the front row-more Familiarity
known as the bald headed row.
the .'staga-door Johnny" is presis.
tent and perennial type.
There is no fanfaring of a band to
inaugurate the performance. One OF
the actors appears and places on
the stage where all can see, a sign
that reads simply Rome" and then
the action begins. You know that
the scene is~supposed to represent
s'Rome" although it is precisely the
same bare setting that will later be
the Plains of Pillippi or the interior
of Caesars house. For a minute the
strangeness of it all dazzles and puz-
zles you--what no footlights, no
brightlyhned scenery, no actual re-
production of time and place, you
ask yourself? Apparently. not, for
the actors come on in groups, anu
soon you become lost in following the
action and dialogue, and forget all
about the absence of the scenery.
Although there are many otho-
differences to be observed for one
thing all the women's parts are play
ed by young boys and youths, and
YOU wonder how long the modern
theatre would endure if such condi-
ton prevailed today. And the cos
tunes are more suggestive OF Eliza
bethan London than of ancient Rome.
No try as hard as you can, and de
spite very tolerable acting, you can
not get used to the absence OF
scenery.
Scenery today means more with us
narhans than we realize. We nave