Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 196, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1912 — WHEN IRVING PLAYED ROMEO [ARTICLE]

WHEN IRVING PLAYED ROMEO

Bilenee, Light and Actors, the Three Things Necessary for Artistic Effect and Atmosphere. Wendell Phillips Dodge relates an Incident growing out of the first meeting of .Robert Mantell with Sir Henry Irving, hack In 1882, when both were playing Romeo m London. There were reviewers who found Irving too old for the youthful Romeo, and one advised that he should make way for “the young fellow over at the Olympic.” Irving prepared §, special afternoon performance in the Lyceum, to which all the players in London were invited. After it was over, Mantell went back of the stage, and Irving asked him how he liked the performance. “It has been like an afternoon at school with congenial lessons,” replied Mantell. “How do you do it? How do you manage effects? How do you get such atmosphere, such a realization of the glory of the tragedy, with such little effort? Is there no recipe?” “There is; indeed there is,” answered Irving. “Simple, too; only three things” to remember. The-first is si* lence. and plenty -of It behind the scenes, so that the actor may be at ease, with nothing to distract when striving for his shadings. The second in light, regulated as far as possible so that nature is counterfeited —and that, young man, is the recipe.” t “But,” protested Mantel, “you said there were three things to remember; you have mentioned but two. Is there a third?” “Did I say a third?” asked Irving. “Um, perhaps I did, perhaps I did; hut what could 1 have had in mind? Let me see. Ah, yes, silence, light, and —um, shall I say—actors? Remember that, my boy, actors. Silence, light, and—actors, that is the third.”— London Strand.