New-York tribune., 1921-10-30


which enjoyed the distinction Of being
older, lower-rented and smaller-stagcd
than any other licensed place OF enter
tainment in the country. The Old
Musick House, "anciently the great
messuage of Moses the jew, man OF
great wealth and ability IN the time
Of William Rufus" held only hun
dred people, and the Norwich Playerx
searched for new home.
Reconstructing an
Eiizabethan Playhouse
In their search they stumbled upon
an eighteenth century building, with
galleries, which had formerly been
church and presented possibilities OF
being turned into a sixteenth century
theater. Under Nugent Monck's direc-
ton, Captain Paul Noel reconstructed
an Elizabethan playhouse, following as
closely as the building would allow the
specification found in the Henslowe
papers for the rebuilding Of the
Fortune Theater. Strictly speaking, the
Fortune, opened in 1901, only two
years before the Queens death, was
not Elizabethan. The typical theaters
Of Shakespeare's working years as
actor and playwright-the Curtain.
Newington Butts, Rose, Blackfriars,
Swan and Globe-were circular inside
and polygonal outside. The Fortune,
the model of which the Norwich Mad
dermarket follows, was the first thes-
ter TO be constructed with square
auditorium.
Aside from this structural detail,
however. the reconstruction justifies
the Maddermarket management's claim
that the place has been built so that
Shakespeare can be given on the stage
for which he wrote There is 4 gallery
lunning over the stage IN the most ap-
proved ElizaDethaa style. There are
TO footlights; the lighting is projected
from q limelight chamber in the pit
and from q batten in the Giles" There
is nc scenery except q tapestry tableau
curtain of the Forest of Arden. If you
are q grounding" you are almost
touching the players on the apron
stage. Two feet away from your rush
bottomed chair the prompter. in the
dress of TIE period, leans over where
the fcotligbts ought TO be.
J eats Would Change
Form of Modern Stage
The apron stage. tnc characteristic
feature Of the Elizabethan playhouse,
projects forward from the middle stage
into the pit There are in addition
rear stage and an upper stage or gal
lery. The curtain can be lowered III
front Of the main stage, but behind the
apron, so that the action IS continuous;
there IS no waiting for changes OF
scenery.
During az interval on the first night
" B. Yeats. the irish poet, seized the
occasion for 4 vigorous attack or the
modern form os the stage. He linked
Up the Maddermarket Theater enter
prise with European attempt to bring
back again the Ehzabethan stage art.
( Yeats declared that our present pie
ture-frame stage is all wrong for the
presentation Of romantic plays and
the real literature of the thcater." For
the proper presentation of any but
the realistic plays Of the modern
kind" he said, I'VE ought to bring
back the apron theater of Shake
speare's days. The audience, he con-
tended, ought TO be around the players
on three sides, so that they could hear
clearly what IS said and catch the
shades Of the players voices. "The
apron ought TO extend as far cut a.
that ne exclaimed, osnting 20 the
middle Of the Aoor on which the
/ groundlings were sitting.