New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-12-07


cisely as though reporter were
not person for whose coming
one prepared by locking up the spoons.
Flguratively, she even left the silver
chest open and walked out of the room,
She spoke of the theater with an i'm
mense lndiscretion of frank instances,
without once saying, "Of course, you
must not print this" And she has
thereby given working demonstration
of the effectiveness of the honor svs-
tenn.
AS L'Enigme in Zone Night in Rome"
the new play by Hartley Manners in
which she is appearing, Laurette Tay-
lor is cast again into an entirely new
mold. BY that remarkable mimetic
Huency hers she attains even a
physical transformation. She gives the
physical suggestions of pose and
stature and power that no other role
she has played in has ever brought
out. Her Latin idiom of gesture and
speech are subtle and alien. 1t takes
time to identify her with this new por-
trait. But PLnigme has this in common
with Aunted Annie and Peg. which
these in turn all have with Miss Taylor
There is in all of them a sort of saw
ing sense of the value of genuine com
monness, humorous defiance Of con-
ventional refinement. These charac-
ters, like Miss Tayler herself, are
somehow-accessible.
The discussion of acting started
quite naturally from Miss Taylor's own
experiences. "The worst of having
your husband write plays for you
said Miss Taylor, sis that people at
once assume that they are written to
your order. Now, if Hartley were
writing plays to fit me, the most nat
ural thing after the success of Peg
would have been to write me another
play with brogue, wouldn't it?
"But the war happened to interest
him as drama, and he thought of it in
the terms of a little Cockney slavey.
had long before Out There decided
that I would do no more slavey parts,
and I knew less than nothing of
Cockney accent. AS matter of fact,
my accent was never a good one in the
part. But as l wanted to act in this
play, l waived both objections He
wrote The Harp of Life,' about the
mother of nineteen-year-old boy, and
adjustments to it. If he were writing
plays to fit me, he should not have
written this one. 1t has meant years
work for me. 1t set me to studying
Italian and sent me into every fortune
telling parlor in the city in the search
Of details for the part. He writes the
plays that he wants to write, and some
how find ways of playing them be-
cause I am sympathetic to them.
II am glad that it is so, because
each new part is then an adventure for
me. might, perhaps, have gone on
playing Peg until l had three chins
would have been the fun and what
would have been my profit?
10 hold your place on the New York
stage-that takes skill and foresight as
well as talent: 1t is easy enough to
be a successful ingenue You have
really to know nothing. You have only
to be charming and young, and since
New York is the most voluptuous city
in the world, there are great rewards
for charm and youth. But to hold your
place in turn against the constantly
rising tide Of competing youth you
must have something more lasting
Consider the superannuated ingenue.
Is there anything more tragic7
You see New York is not city of
fixed and settled theatergoers like
London or Paris. There q favorite
grows old among people who see her
so often and are so faithful to her that
they are scarcely aware of the ravages
that time is making on her. But New
York is place of shifting crowds, the
majority of its theatergoers are ir-
reverent strangers. And the man from
Colorado, seeing the smile and hair and
eyes of the famous beauty for the first
time, is unabashed and merely says,
oh, is that she?' Why, she's older
than I thought And her doom Is upon
her.
THAT evil day shall never come upon
me II ! can stave it off by work. They
shall not put thumb-print on me, and
say. oh, she is very nice in that line