New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-04-27
BY Ralph Block


ting shout Tony Sarg's marionettes.
II has it's positive side, this puppet
show at the Punch and Judy Theatre,
INT the chief effect of it's amazing
mower over your imagination. it's
thrust TO plunge you deeply into pools
OF Quixotian laughter at the expense
OF human beings. is to make you won
der st what il does 70 the honorable
art Of acting. Here is the oldest play
thing in the world, the acting doll
doing all the things that live people
spend their best energies trying to do
on the stage, and doing it so much bet
Ter, so much more richly and effective
~ and with such simple economy Of
expression as to throw down the last
hedge of privilege that has fenced tho
human actors sacred person.
Nothing is new in the world. The
only difference between old things and
new things is that new people know
why they have them. Self conscious
ness is a modern thing. In the old
days people just had what they had
and asked no questions. The Punch
and Judy show of other days was only
show. Now it's q theory. The proc
ess is the process Of every human de-
velopment. First the result of hu-
man intuitive and unself-conscious
thinking. then this reality lost in mul-
tiplied layers of thinking about it, and
finally return to the original, simple
reality. recognized now as such. That
is the explanation of the puppet show.
which is an old thing come back to
charm us as much as it ever did. Only
now, to be adequate for us, we mast
know why.
It is strange that the demand for
simplicity on the stage has never got
far enough to reach the actor.
The whole business of acting for years
seems to have been built on the be-
lief that the way to express q good
deal was to do good deal Of acting
The decorators have realized for a
long time that the best way to say
good deal was 20 talk very little. A
candlestick here, q doorway there, and
the greedy imagination of the crowd
mind out in front did all tho miraculous
rest But the actor never got that far.
He had two extremes. both Of them
bad. The drst Of these was to create
wealth Of business. refreshing In its
own inventive eleverness. but heavy
enough always to swamp the part
This was the Bernhardt style. In
time this fell into . formula, the for
mula Of Bernhsrdt In later days. Here
was the musk, warmed pallidly now
and then. but still . taught and habit
ual gesture. What happens some
times when . living thing becomes
formulized. the pairing down to thin
ness. somehow has failed to happen
TO acting when IL has become set in
mould. That style Of playing always
has the air Of being as ford and
ornste as Il had when it was alive.
In both cases there is absence of not
only simplicity In effect, but even Of
any understanding of need for reach
lng people by simple means.
One of the favorite foolish notions
OF people who yearn toward the stage
IS that all they have to do Is to act
natural. AS matter Of truth, an
sctor can never act natural on the
stage and act. This Is one of the
favorite delusions of humanity, rank
ing next to the cure of appendicitis by
olive oil. Indeed the highest art of
me stage is the most unnatural, the
rick being how TO make it seem
natural A bedroom scene on the
stage IS not merely setting in
toxed room with beds In it and pre-
sumanly people in or under them. 1t
y a microcosm OF bedrooms all over
ne world. 1t is million bedrooms
concentrated into one, and TO "act
Natural" would be as If one human be-
ing were walking around in the midst
OF a million bedrooms. He is lost in
tnem.
acting, therefore, it is established.
IS one of the most highly artificial and
seiective arts in the whole range, even
a. it's best. When the actor begins to
fAaggerate his business, to put in addi-
Nonal fourishes, he complexities fur
'aer what is already highly compli-
cited and intricate style Of appealing
ard influencing the human mind.
That returns US to the puppct show.
ne human face itself is actually a
Tery bad medium for the expression
and conveying Of emotions in art You
can always get more powerful effect
ont 81 human face when it is caught
~ tome artist who knows how TO select
"na' hc wants out Of it. That is the
explanation Of the fascination of the
A1"ua Lisa. There is too much in an
ordinary human face working at it's
-saas rate Of speed II is confusing,
logical, just AZ man is illogical. But
III always has to be logical That la
my IL IL art~it satisfies and soothes
~ being logical in the world that isn't.
Inc films know this lesson deeply,
wen though the medium gjyeg much
more leeway than the stage. The pict-
sfs director ~ always making a selec-