THE WAR AND THE STAGE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2352, 7 January 1915, Page 2

THE WAR AND THE STAGE

NO MORE LARGE SALARIES. Those wlio have watched tho gradual decline of tho stago in. London and the English provinces are now asking themselves two very pertinent questions: Will it live through the crisis brought about by the war, and, if so, will tho managers remember the lessons that they have been forced to loarn and turn them to advantago? If they do not shako themselves out of their peculiar inability to realise facts and step down from their selfcreated pedestals on to solid earth, it will bo necessary for theso managers to endeavour to find somo' othor way in which to earn a living, because tho stage will be "as dead as a door-nail." Assailed by three powerful rivals in the shape of varioty theatres, movingpicture palaces, and motor-cars, thoy liavo continued to cling with incredible "pig-headedness" to methods and prices

which belonged to other times, and other ways. The actor-manager system, which, although thoroughly bad from every business and artistic point of view, met with varied success when the actor-manager was young, attractive, and.energetic, has gradually driven even the earnest playgoer to more cheerful forms of amusement and relaxation, and, with exceptions that can be counted on the fingers of one hand, there ha 6 been a dismal and only too easily explained record of failure for several years. The consequence was that at the moment when the war fell upon it like a thunderbolt the stage resembled a goldmining company which, earning nothing, paid an ever-dwindling dividend out of reserves, or was like a man of increasingly expensive habits who kept' up all the appearance 6f former prosperity by living on borrowed money. _ • When nations emerge from the debris of this ravaging war the London stage will, if still breathing, very humbly pull itself together. It will decide to scrap half its theatres and will bid a pathetic farefell to the actor-manager system. His reign willhave tomo to\ an abrupt end, like so many other foolish 'things. It will then hand over the remaindor of its older buildings, which stand as landmarks in places known to playgoers, and tasicab-drivers, to business men. These people, who, know the value of money and goods, will immediately reduce the prices of admission- by onehalf: and- all the inflated charges of all the 6cene-paintere and dressmakers, producers, managers, printers, et hoc genua omne, will be revised in the same drastic, necessary manner. The harpies of Stageland, who have so long hung, hawk-like ; over the box-office will be sent to*the right-about, and, the dramatist, hitherto,, whatever his position and fame, the 'pawn of the actor-mana-ger, will have his day. The old, bad mad days of large salaries will be over for ever. The very ordinary person who was wont to ask and get £150 a week for six performances will be paid £10 for eight. Indeed, £10 will he the largest salary to be earned on the stage, becauee the business man will know that, except in the case of the rare and occasional genius or eccentric, no actor or actress has ever drawn a halfpenny to the boxoffice. The play was, is, and always will be the thing. , By bringing salaries down to their true and proper basis (£5 th 9 average) and even then a person who memorises lines and puts on paint and does no more than three hours' work a day, except on Wednesdays ' and Saturdays, will he paid more than hosts of men who use their brains for eight, nine, ' and ten hours a day—artists will often earn more a year than they ever have before, although t-he.v may boast of having drawn from £50 to £100 a week. 1 For it is better to earn £5 a week for a year than-. £150 a week for three nights.. 5 It is indeed an ill wind that blows nobody any good. It is certain that the I London stage, like many other things in this country, will be rendered stronger, better, simpler, and more honest by the war. ' , Also, they will he spared the futile efforts of pretty, incompetent, young women in parts that demand training and experience, and they will no longer, be puzzled by the . strange vagaries of : that dodo the producer, tho.. finger? marks of wlwse superlatively clever hand they used to see all over the piece, to its utter detriment. . : Instead, they will find the best available play' acted by the. best available people at reasonable prices, and everything in the theatre, from the stage to the seating arrangements, will encourage them'to-return. What a difference? —By Cosmo Hamilton.