THE STAGE TO DAY.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20093, 24 November 1930, Page 6

THE STAGE TO DAY.

* INCOMPETENT ACTORS. IJ-ROM OUX o\vy COKII3POS.DEBT.) LONDON, October 17. At the annual luncheon of the Critics' Circle, Mr Henry Ainley, who was responding for the "Players" said that what bothered the stage to-day was the number of incompetent actors and actresses. "I have a good idea, - ' went on Mr Ainley, "and that is that we should lift 2000 of the incompetent actors and ] actresses and put them on a big ship and I send them far away to sea, and leave them on an uninhabited island to live on tho flora and fauna. We do not want them here. They are keeping good actors out. "Having got rid of this boatful, there is another thing. We must guard the entrance to our profession. There should be only one entrance, and that should be through the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. "I had a letter yesterday from p. man who wrote me, 'I havs variously thought of adopting the stage as my profession, as my firm has gone bankrupt.' (Laughter.) That l-j deiiiiitely true. "Then again, we are constant!;" asked, 'Where are the kings of yesterdayf 'What would Irving do if he were alive?' 'Where are the aetor-xnaaagers?' That is not fair. We have the actormanagers. We have Leslie Henson, Miss Cooper, and Sir Martin Harvey. A- Renaissance Going Oil. "We cannot have the great ones back, but we have the remembrance of their traditions, and we ought to employ a little of the romance and glamour and rigour of the game. That is what we need. We have a fine example at the Haymarket. I know no artist so supreme at her job as Miss Marie Tempest. (Cheers.) "There are men to take the place of those who arc gone. There is Cedrie Hardwicke, there is Baliol Holloway, and there is John Gielgud. And Leslie Henson is a marvel. He is worth all the great comedians that Lamb described rolled into one. "I am tired of hearing people say that the stage is done. The stage is not done. There is a blazing trail going round from Drury Lane to Hammersmith by way of Streatham Hill. There is a renaissance going on, and I know that the glory, if it has not returned, is returning quickly and permanently." (Cheers.)