New-York tribune., 1917-07-08
Nj. COPEAU, REFORMER

their parts. They approach and study
them in such a way as to escape rou-
tine, all the stuffy inheritance of prece-
dent The two curses of the French
stage to-day, VI. Copeau has said, are
that actors either read their parts and
largely forget to act them (the Come
die Francaise) or, lacking that stern
tradition of pure speech in their at
tempt to act and seem natural, fall
into slovenly habit of diction.
NJ. Copeau tackles his refreshing
problem in this wise: When play,
ancient or modern, is to be produced,
he assigns a scene to the company, first
explaining what is to occur and who the
characters are. Then his actors play
that scene, forming their own ideas of
the characters and supplying their own
speeches until fairly definite way of
doing the thing has been worked out,
and a way obviously not encumbered
by precedent, not buried under the
ways of other actors, perhaps genera
tions Of them, that have gone before.
Only when the scene has been worked
out with that freshness Of point OF
view and the spontaneous invention OF
details that results from it does NJ.
Copeau put the text into the hands OF
his players. They then modify and de-
fine their performance to conform with
the text, but always, NJ. Copeau de-
clares, retaining the freshness and
spontaneity of their method of sp-
proach.
lie is also a foe 10 the domination of
the stage manager. He refrains scrupu-
lously from giving the actors the gest-
ure and the accent. They must get
that for themselves, and thus they at
tain an individual vitality and uncon-
ventionality that would otherwise be
/ impossible, as we'll as a variety of de-
tail springing from the intelligent ap-
plication to the problem Of several
minds instead Of one.
/ Needless to say, there are no stars in
his system, the ensemble being all
/ important; but by insisting on the
! greatest amount of individual initia-
tive and responsibility on the part Of
the actors he avoids the mechanical.
Prussian military discipline usual to
/ the personally directed ensemble.
With such a company perfected, NJ.
Copeau declares himself largely indif-
ferent TO the scenery. GIVE me
couple of boards and some actors and
l will gslvanize anything into life" he
maintains. He feels that we are now
threatened with scenic luxury in the
train of the Russian ballet that may
prove as pernicious as the over-elsbora-
ton Of the incorrectly termed real
istic" scenery of an older fashion,
which, Of course, has never deceived
the most naive observer into the sup
position that it was real. Moliere and
Shakespeare he has played and would
play without other scenery than cur
tains and some obvious furniture. Thus
produced, he presented Twelfth Night"
in Paris, and it was furor.
Leon Daudet wrote Of that produc-
ton:
IL have seen nearly all Shake
speare's plays given in England by
the most famous artists. . lhave
never seen anything which came up
10 those presentations OF Twelfth
Night at the Vieux-Colombier. -.
At time when all Paris theatres go
down there is something there
which will rise"
Speaking more generally, NJ. Daudet
rcjoiced in the sight OF stage at the
Vieux- -Colombier with no unnecessary
luxury, no vain trinkets; where actors
talked so as 70 be heard
Jacques Copeau, earnest, simple. mag
netic, still under forty, will have a
somewhat different problem in the The
atre Frsneais, Of New York, where in
cvitably he will be forced TO work with
actors who have known the contami-
mating effect OF other theatrical modes.
However, he can be trusted TO make
many OF the old stagers fall into line,
and, with them regcnerated, he is bound
20 achieve important things, not only
for the French drama, but for Amcri-
can dramatic art in New York.