New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-01-06

tlSy"rlgnLS CSually prefer 20 con-
centrate on making the audience grasp
few essentials regarding the charac-
ters who do appear. They are wary Of
confusing with too much detail and Of
appointed. Plays almost never deal
with an important character who re-
mains always behind the scenes. The
mysterious stranger in "The Lady
From the Sea" would be such a char
acter if he never came for his love.
Persons in plays who arc much
talked of but never appear are usually
like persons referred to in graft in
quiries as capable of furnishing the
evidence required-either dead or i'm
aginary. Otherwise LA Horla" would
burst on the scene. In Treasure ISL
and" Captain Flint was dead as door
nail. In "The Importance Of Being
Earnest" both Ernest and MI. Bunbury
existed only in the fancy Of Jack
Worthing.
THERE is an opportunity FOR some
- create
strong and novel effect by means of
suppressed leading character The hint
IS free. Let him who can draw the
sword out of the stone A great effect
has sometimes been obtained by re-
tarding the entrance of single lead
ing figure for whole act, or even
two, while he has been so constantly
talked about as to begct in the audi
ence a vivid desire to mako his ac-
quaintance.
Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman is not
seen until the second act, though his
wife has heard him pacing up and
down his room like wolf in his cage
Moliere's Tartufe does not come on the
stage until the third act. For this de-
vice to be successful it is essential that
only one leading character shall remain
unseen, on whom the attention Of the
audience may by that very fact be
riveted. But why not go "a step fur
ther and retard his entrance beyond
the last curtain?
The suppressed leading character
should exert q determining influence
upon the action, either malevolent or
benign, with the aloofness of demon
or a god. 1t is an accepted principle
OF piaywriting that characters can ex-
LIST only with reference to the action
and that character can be brought out
In no other way than by throwing peo-
pie into given relations; but such a
proposition does not require the pres
ence of any particular character upon
the stage. His influence on the action
and the significance OF his relations
with the others may be no less eff
fectively manifested because OF his
splendid isolation"
There is close analogy between the
existence Off stage Of an important
character and the plot element of en-
veloplng action, or a sort of frame in
which the play is set. Enveloping ac-
tion in its simplest form is seen in a
. story which connects private person
ages with public history Fiction gains
reality from frame OF fact. Envelop-
ing action occurs in almost all the
Waverley Novels, and it is a favoritc
element in Shakespeare's plots, notably
the Wars of the Roses in Richard III. >"
the supernatural in Macbeth" the
Roman populace in Julius Caesar" the
French war in king Lear" and the
enchantment in "The Tempest" These
examples indicate how princes, soldiers
and others may in themselves and their
deeds supply an cnveloping action.
g TEVENSON might easily have
~ awaited himself in "Treasure ISL
and" Of the sovereign device OF an