The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-03-06
EURIPIDES in
THE DISCARD
EnsIand's Tragic Actress Scraps High
brow Plays for Red Hot I'M
perfection.
BY MARGARET WALTER.

i 1~o4NGo4Ns MAI = " mower WOulu
have thought to find you playing in
the Grand Guignol?" I said to Sybil
Thorndike when finally 1 was allow
ed to enter her dressing room at the
little theatre after running the gaunt-
let of as imposing a phalanx of deco
rated flunkeys as ever Il encountered
at Buckingham palace garden. party,
I and twice as eXacting. Last year at
this time you were playing "Medea"
and Trojan Women and brushing up
'Everyman" for Lent"
THE reason 1 am playing in the
Grand Guignol is because it comes
nearer to my ideal than anything on
the stage today. That's why I'm here
And as to this time last year. Well
thank goodness 1 just escaped in time
was actually beginning to get asso-
ciated with highbrows. What do you
think of that? 1 hate highbrows worse
than anything in the world. Nothing
is more despicable than theis imita-
ton superiority. And little by little I
found myself being enveloped in their
air of genteel decay. It would have
strangled me in the end. Now I'm free
Nobody can accuse me Of being high
brow now" And she smudged the
black splashes from her harlequin
makeup with the back of her fist.
But the Greek plays. You don't
pretend that your stuff here approach
es them, do you?" L murmured in
amazement.
"Euripides is the greatest dra matist
who ever wrote, but Euripides is dead.
His plays remain to this day supreme
art. But they do not represent life
today. We are not so big as that, you
and |, and the best thing we can do
is to leave off initiating and begin to
express ourselves in the very best way,
and as honestly, as we can. Our plays
here are as imperfect as they can be,
but they are red hot, and they give
you life as it is at this very minute.
We are not trying to reflect life. We
show life through a powerful lens,
concentrated upon this or that aspect;
anything that comes along. The triv-
ial and mean and dishonest, the brave
and the true, SO that you can fol-
low for a little minute impulses and
their reactions in menjand women who
live right around you, so that you will
understand not only them, but your
self and your own reactions"
"Thea the English idea of a Grand
Guignol is a sort of school where peo-
pie may go to learn about their ugly
selves" said I, fresh from Paris and
a notorious little theatre tucked away
in an obscure and almost secret al
ley where white-faced men and wom-
en- in outlandish clothes rub elbows
with inquisitive foreigners and nota-
bilities of the underworld, and sit
through periods of unrelieved horror
for horrors sake for a few sous.
piI+t hn IT,,or oh i,,4a
of Grand Guignol must be different
from the French. In France when peo-
pie begin to think original thoughts
they dress to suit the part; they live
and breathe and act originally. In
England 1t is different. When we de-
eide to think unconventionally we take
a little more than ordinary pains to
battle and dress for dinner. So when
we started our Grand Guignol we
chose one of the most perfect exam
pies of the Adam period in existence
to act in, small, exclusive, immacu-
late in ivory and old blue satin. 1t is
the only theatre in London which has
beautiful ante rooms, where the aud
fence may retire between the acts"
Our plays do not present just hor-
ror and vice. They are tragic, comic |
and farcical. We go in for melo- |
drama, too. Melodrama is as neces-
sary for the we'll balanced healthy |
brain of a man or woman as Jerks |
are for his body. 1t Jerks you out of
your accustomed rut upsets your bald
ance, you are all the better for it," !
Don't you feel that you are playing |
down a bit when you act in mcleod
drama ?"
mot a bit. I don't label it melo- |
drama when I'm acting it. I just play |
for the life. the reality in my part with |
all my might. It's as good for an actor |
TO play melodrama as it is for mu-
stefan to play light stuff. Ysaye used
TO give his best pupils Rachmaninoff, |
Drdla, Straus. Any good violinist can
get something out of Beethoven, Bach, !
it takes a master hand to make good
with popular music.
II haven't any conventions, I don't |
give a fig for moral standards as they
are talked about today. 1 have just
one aim-art; just one road to get
there-life."
do you always know when you
have got the real thing?'
"Of course not. But I'm working to-
ward better understanding all the
time and I'm not afraid of anything.
was brought up like that. My faith
er was an Anglican priest, a cannon in
the church. He loved the stage and
he read us our first plays. Not only
that but no matter what we started to
do. he believed in it and helped us to
do It. He had perfect faith in US, |
enough faith to leave US free. His
library was always open to us from |
our nursery days. There were certain |
books he asked US not TO read until we |
we're old enough, Il never occurred to |
- to read them, There was never |