A SCRAPE O' THE TONGUE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2558, 4 September 1915, Page 10

A SCRAPE O' THE TONGUE

;— INTERVIEW WITH MR. GRAHAM MOFFAT

NATURALISM IN PLAYS AND. THE ACTING' OE THEM.-*'-' *

[Br snYm.]

'Anyone who has seen Mr. Graham Moffat's plays will concedo that they 1 have strongly individual characteristics, ' apart altogether from tho Scottish dia- • lect.. There is a calm, clear 1 air of naturalism about tho.acting ef ! thein tih'at causes ono to rub the eyes 1 and wonder if they are not all ' real 1 jJeop.le living their own lives, and that j ' we —tho audience—are actually » party J of tourists visiting domestio interiors in < a country famous for the- production 1 of immigrants. Mr. Moffat has, in our 1 judgment,'; at all events, achieved the i same_ for the stage in , the ' sphere of J Scottish drama, as Lady Gregory and ' Yeats are trying to' do for tho Irish, < and Miss Homiamn. and the London 1 Stage Society for the English drama, 5 with'.'this difference,- that his plays set 1 out ; reality in home life, and do not ' pretend for an instant to exploit its 1 poetic side. That is the reason that he ! gets; close beside the troth,- whilst the 1 beautiful poetry of Yeats and the word- < painting of Lady Gregory are necessar- 1 ily illusory, theatrical, and most times ' rather morbid. Now Mr. Moffat cannot be morbid. He introduces a professional' mourner in "A Scrapo o' the Pen," but he is about the liveliest person in the 1 play, though a first-class weeper at the < graveside. • The' 'distinguished aotor- j autlior. now with u's, when seen yestor- 1 day, allowed gome ideas' to escape that 1 were, at once pursued! and bayonetted 1 with' a pencil. , I • "Yousee," said 1 Mr. Moffat, ''I never > had a chano® to become theatrical in ] any .'way—not to absorb the' conven- 1 tional way to write or stage a play, and i I suppose it's because ,of thai my plays .1 and.'tlho characters in them'appear to ! be so natural. And, moreover, they are ] naturall Boforo.l began acting in my ' own plays, I >yas a. travelling reciter and entertainer, • tfnd I just recited what I pleased in my own. way, and that -seemed ' to pleasp my audiences, so I. didn't have 1 to train> : myself to do it in a more tkea-. ' trical stvlo. : ' "So that when-'Bunty' was staged I' gavothe public something different to what thev had been accustomed to, I made, the characters like ordinary folk, and their talk like plain people, : not high-falutin' speeches' that people in everyday conversation never do make. I go' to: nature for my characters. A lot of .authors begin, and sometimes end, .their plays .by extracting ideas from, other pays and dressing them up slightly different, whilst all round ,t-hem are'ideas for plays, new situations, fresli characters, if they would ; only see them, and Scotland, dear old Scofe : land, :is .full,of interesting characters, and 'with a-little, observation'they.can. 'bo photographed for tlis stage as it were.. Scrape p',. the Pen,,' ." saidvMr.. Moffat/' "neveri'had a fair chance I 'in' London. Do you know, the producer wanted to make them all sing ~'Auld Lang Syne' in; beautiful, straight harmony in the Cross scene; Lawks me, straight harmony at Hogmanay! Did you ever hear the. like of that. But I would not-have.iir-it would have sounded like a musical comedy. No-r-each I group had to have' its own key, had : to be just as discordant as they actually are round the .village' cross on Now Year's Eye. But 'The Scrape o' the Pen' was not the play then that you se'o' now—it was shorter, as wo used to, play a-curtain-raiser with it, so that those who arrived 1 late at the theatre after dinner could see the whole of the performance. . We had no 'bustle'; scene,-, and there was;.no 'lullaby'- scene; 'in London. Tlie. play)grows better: as' wego oii.- Tiiougn .it' ran. six months in I made more money with it-in' the provinces in its improved' form,, and it's . still a better play , today;'l'm still/improving it. You know the), bonnet I'm going , to' lengthen .that by giving Leezie a scene iii'-.which'. slio-displays the new bonnet to'-'>her-friend- before I come on the scene."' . '. ' ' •' - ; Mr. Moffat 1 said-he had no now plays , -I'oii'theliStocksV'-.but had some lddw-l ; in.liis head'.which he hoped:. to write down in the form of . plays when -ho got back to England.: His present plans provide ..dates in - Australasiai up- till the end of January next!--; What'will happen then depends on.-the war. There had-been a paragraph going the' rounds that a new play of his, entitled .'"The of Sandy,"- was being taken to America, but such was not the-case. .Tie play . was not his, but , was -written by an Edinburgh man. For some years past a very successful little playlot of his had been, played almost continuously in England and America, entitled "The Concealed Bed," which lasts only half an hour. It was at present being played in vaudeville in America by a company trained and! owned by Mr. Moffat, ,who- was, also, responsible -for the training, of; the company which played "A Scrapo ©' the Pen''- in Amorica.