Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 December 1899 — “Hamlet" by Candlelight. [ARTICLE]

“Hamlet" by Candlelight.

Osmond Tearle had a curious experience while playing “Hamlet” at Durban, Natal, recently. Suddenly, during, Hamlet’s “nunnery scene” with Ophelia, the electric lights in the theater went out and it and the whole town was in darkness. Quick as thought Leonard Rayne, who was playing Polonlus, seized a candle, and coining down front, assured the audience that they had nothing to fear and that he hoped the light would be presently restored. As a matter of fact it was not until the end of the play that the light which had so suddenly gone out was suddenly switched on again. Candles, consequently, had to be resorted to for footlights—which quite intensified the “fqnerealism” of the graveyard scene.