Evening star., 1948-07-29

Her llle ~ thie CHh0ouA~S Va ~
rlayed over several decades in the
II for anything.
Miss Roche gets around in hu
nrofession of acting. Last week, she
was a drunken yodeler, an elderly
nlaygirl who had made = life work
of moral dilapidation. This week,
she is the famous Lady Bracknell,
dowager OF London's Victorian So
riety, and . ferocious defender Of
i,s stuffy morality. In both, she is
a show-stopper.
This Is the way 1t has been all
through Miss Roche's life, from
early girlhood as an actress in
England until the mature and
serene present at Olney in Mary
land. She takes . wonderfully gay
view of 1t from her current van
tage point.
Although she has played scores OF
leads. and has been featured
players for years. she has always
thought of herself A = character
player.
TT is such q pleasant thought
she SAYS. AT least 1t always has
been to me. You can take all the
heroes, and heroines, and their
opposites the villains and villain
esses, and when you add them up
they still constitute only . special
lied few. Characters are infinite
well, more nearly infinite. And
where would the principals Of .
play be without the characters?
Locked up In defeated play
wright's trunk. that's where they
would be. A proper thing. too, II
you ask me-"
The Olneys present attraction
makes a fine illustration Of just
what Miss Roche Is saying.
Would you believe IT," she asks
1--WE gone right straight through
the women of that play. First ]
was Cecily. the 18-year r-old beauty
In John Workings garden. A few
years later, there was playing Lady
Gwendolyn Fairfax. Was I ever
smart about handling that upstart-
ish Cecily when I grew up to Lady
Gwendolyn? And now I am Lady
Bracknell which, I suppose, consti-
tutes q simple illustration OF the
theory OF evolution.
Nevertheless, still want to know
OF q better way by which any ac-
trexs can find three parts in one
play. 1t takes time. but I have had
time-although wouldn't want the
impression to get out that I am as
old as The Importance of Being
Earnest"
Miss Roche, who is always one Of
the actresses most in demand during
the regular season as well as the
summer one, is in repertory by
choice right at this moment. She
left one Of Broadway's brightest
hits OF last season to work at Olney
The hit in question is Angel in the
Wings the Hartmans' musica
revue. It is perhaps the most mer-
rurially changing show in Broad.
way history-you know the Hart
mans and their ad libs-but as ar
old repertory player. Miss Roche got
to feeling the need for more radica
change. Say, from a drunken fe.
male yodeler to Victorian dowager
over the week end.
Being an honest woman, as vel
as a lovable one, she would not
want any one to think her outward
calm on opening nights in repertory
reflects her inner condition. She
has the filters and sometimes thinks
they are getting more acute from
week to week.
why not?" she wants to know at
dinner. Il start thinking of the
dozens OF characters I've played
three OF them in this one play, re-
member-and wonder how I ever
can get the right words out of my
mouth. There have been so many
uncounted thousands of words, ano
I'm always adding to them Suppose
that this very night, would have
one Of those grotesque mental lapses
and 60 back to Lady Gwendolyn's
speeches? I don't think I will, but
I never can tell"
She did not.
Another thing she would not den!
is that she has done a petrifyinl
amount of ad libbing in her time
Most of 1t, she thinks, was successful
but there is some she is still trying Il
laugh of. Her memory of thes'
goes back long way, to the begin
ming Of her American career as ,
member of the Henry Jewett Dick
ems repertory company which die