Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-10-10
THE ACTORS ART
A Little Exposition by Brander
Matthews.

| Matthews.
In a neat and compact little volume,
| "On Acting" (Chas Scribner's Sons, n.
w the distinguished professor of English
VINO for so many years has lent unwonted
distinction to that usually lugubrious af-
fair. the chair of literature at Columbia,
Brander Matthews, by a grace Of wit and
felicity Of expression, backed by sound
and practiced knowledge of his craft, has
compressed much wisdom OF affairs the
atrical. Tho spelling Of the volume-he
Mr.. Matthews!--is atrocious. The hu-
man mind is not adapted to withstand the
mental and moral shock Of the word dis
tinguisht"! Especially In series OF es-
says on the art of acting, which, as Mr..
Matthews so Justly observes, is largely q
matter Of appearances.
A fitting title for the book would be
"The Actors the Thing" \ seasoned
critic, n man who has endured the aw-
ful boredom OF nnumerable first nights,
when the very angle Of the pitch OF the
chairseat adds TO the misery Of the fail
urc OF n riecc. Mr.. Matthews has lived
to he able to tell the vital truth about
plays and players. We are accustomed to
go to the theatre, to be unsatisfed and
to blame the actors, the piece and every
body. But Mr.. Matthews is not OF this
sort. He has put the blame and the credit
where il belongs. If the play does not
please. It is the actors fault. In his hands
rests the success or failure of any stray
masterpiece that may come along. And
masterpieces may not be so rare as it is
sometimes thought.
Mr.. Matthews says:
EVERY one who has studied the recent
history of the theatre will admit, If he
is both competent and candid, that the
Ea,,-
ful than it was 40 or 30 years ago. Ibsen
and Biornson are dead; but Hervieu and
Brleux. Rostand and Lavedan are writ
ing in France, as Sudermann and Haupt-
mann are i'm Germany and D'Annunzio in
italy In England there are Sir James
Barrie and Mr.. Shaw, Mr.. Jones and Sir
Arthur Pinero: and here in America there
are half n dozen men, still young, most
of them. and still learning how to see
life-the life about them, and how to re-
produce it on the stage, who are earnestly
seeking as best they can to hold the mir
ror up to nature"
So our outlook is not so bad as we are
wont to think. Mr.. Matthews quotes Colcy
Cibbcr That versatile and rather snob-
bish person who wrote and acted and gos-
siped for so fruitful years once asked Con-
greve why he did not write another COM
edy. The old wit retorted promptly:
"But where are your aCtors?" And Mr..
Matthews goes on:
"Where are the Booths and the Kem-
bles of our time? Is the art of acting,
with our syndicates and our star systems
and our long runs. without hope of re-
covery? 1t calls for little hardihood to
deny this and for little knowledge OF the
theatre to disprove 1t. The Booths and
the Kemblcs and the Garricks did not all
live at once, and it is absurd to suppose
that we can match all the mighty actors
of the past in a single quarter of a CEN
tury. But we can easily call the role of
n dozen or score of actors who are ar
fists, gifted by nature and cultivated by
long exercise of their powers, possessing
each of them an individuality of their
own"
Mr.. Matthews closes his volume by an
assertion of the following fact: That
the art of acting must be adapted to the
nature Of the theatre in which the actor
appears; that the scene-ripping procliv-
ties of the stars that once were would
be out of place in the modern little thea
tire.
The book is interesting. clear, lucid,
worth while. To every student OF the
stage and the art of the actor, to every
playgoer it will be of value. our present
days are days of trying to understand
one another This little volume helps
us to see how the man behind the foot
lights tries to please the man before.
And perhaps II we tried to imagine his
we should have a juster un-
derstandinE of his achievements.