THE THEATRE.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2606, 30 October 1915, Page 9

THE THEATRE.

Tho World's a theatre; tho Earth a stage.—Heywood.

TBr Stiviijs.]

Charles Chaplin Confidential. In the course, of a confidential interview in the New York "Theatre," the inimitable' Charles Chaplin discourses intimately on how he "arrived in pictures." Ho confossos that he has been longer on t'he stags than most people think, having made his first appearance in his mother's arms at the age of threo in England (Chaplin is an Englishman). Four years later ho began his real career on tho boards by doing a clog dance in a play entitled ''Rags to Riches." After that the idea was conceived that tho boy would have a better chanco in life if lie wero given a little eduo&tion, so ha was sent to the Hern Boys' School, near London. On leaving school he returned to the stage in London, for threo years with William Gillotte, with whom he played Billy in "Sherlock Holmes." "My ambitions were then all towards being a leading man or-a'heroic star," said Mr. Chaplin. "All my 'energies, all my study as a youth were along thoso lines. I never thought of trying to become a comedian. It was just an accident. At t'he moment when I had become a littlo discouraged with my progress •in what actors call the legitimate drama, I got an offer from Fred Karno to play a part in a vaudeville piece called "A Night in an English Music Hall." It was totally a funny sketch, and I was cast for the part of the drunken spectator, who was constantly giving his frank .opinions from the box. This. was t'he critical turning-point in my career. I Baw the profession was hopelessly overcrowded, and that there was a large, element of luck m the life of- a successful actor. I was influenced' to take this part also because I needed a rest, and a change of work is the best kind of rest. After a season in London and tho suburbs with the sketch, W6 came to 'America with it. ' I worked hard on the character of the drunken man, wanting to g®t. everything possible out of it, and as it seemed to be successful I was almost contented. While I was playing the part in this country 1 received a very liberal offer to go into moving piotjures,, which I accepted at once. It is in my work on the screen -that I have come to find that the real development of • comedy is a very fascinating study. The longer I stay at it the harder I' work, for it takes every bit of a man's time, thought, and energy." Mr. Chaplin makes the surprising statement .that his first work in pictures was .with Marie Dressier in "Tillie's Punctured Romance," so that the last Chaplin film to be seen here was tho first he appeared in, which is curious, almost unbelievably curious,- but Chaplin ought to know. He says that he writes the scenario of most , of his plays himself, and says that he goes to Nature for them, instancing the case of "The Tramp" and "'Work, both of whioh : pictures were developed from life. "Moloch.". ' In a play entitled "Moloch," Miss Beulah'M.' Dix has attempted to compress into the narrow compass of tfio stage the elementary forces and the contingent horrors of the present war, and the result, according to New York critics, is—melodrama. Miss Dix takes for her characters the ideal husband and father—an honourable, peaceloving, broad-minded who regards war in times of modern civilisation as virtually inconceivable; his wife, who is the embodiment of every womanly and. Christian virtue;, his brother, who is a fiery young patriot ; his undo, who is an erudite professor of international law, and believes, in the inviolabiliy of and- t-ha magio of diplomatici.-fence; his .'old mother, who lias seen two. .wars and does not want to see another; his bosom friend, Philip, a scientific young foreigner engaged to his sister,' and a faithful servant. f Suddenly, war is declared, unexpected invasion follows (either no oceans intervene or aeroplanes oross them), and in a few weeks the peaceful household' experience, in their own various persons, all the woes and outrages which the world Press has. been taking about for a year. The noble father, bereft, of child'and homo, becomes a .drunken savage, who gouges out'the eye;of a. wounded aviator, who has blown a, convoy of wounded to hits, in the effort to wring news out of him; the-faithful servant, maddened by the loss of all her dearest relatives, cubs the throat of tho sleeping foe—to whom her mistress had given succour and welcome—and . is straightway, executed'; tlio angelic wife, out of pure mercy, helps tho wounded aviator—in whom she recognises her sister's be-troiihed—to-commit suicide; the patriotic brother is reduced to a shattered wreck, and -the old ■ mother is left- to mourn over blasted hopes. and desolating memories. ;It is all - effective molodrama, but it all, or very nearly all, has been done before, and it leads nowhere, inasmuch'as when victory has been assured, and universal wretchedness established, the origin of the whole fuss, and the outcome, remain in darkness. But ero the curtain falls it is announced that war has broken ,out again,, this time between the conquerors and their former. allies; and the transformed hero husband proclaims that wars will never cease, becauso man will always fight. If this is the philosophical note of tho play it is a. false one. _ Half of mankind is fighting to-day in the hope of • enforcing a lasting peace, and peace is the goal toward which all that is best in man is striving.

Notes. "I 'want a slice of Turkey,, without any Greece. I don't want to Russia, but I'm very Hungary," says Madam Fontaine in "High Jinks." 'TH Ser/ia if you Rumania," is the waiter's geographical response. Mr. 0. P. Heggie, the ex-Australian actor, is starring in America this season as Androcles, in Shaw's whimsical play "Androcles and the Lion." It does not take a seer to discover from whence the "originality", of idea was secured by the German Jean Gilbert (he is not a Frenchman), and his collaborateaurs in "The Girl in the Taxi," played here last) week by tho illiamson Musical Comedy Company. The characters and to great extent tho plot are adapted from that morry play of other days "Pink Dominoes," which had a great "run about a quarter of a century ago, and which will-be well remembered by many old playgoers.

Miss Dorothy Brunton comes from theatrical stock. As is well known, hor father was a master scenic artist, who helped materially to make the good name of Bland Holt (wrongly referred to recently in a picture-theatre advertisement in Wellington as the lat'e Bland Holt). On her motlior's sido she has received that delicate perception of dramatic and comic values and oharm of personality. Mrs. Brunton as Christine Neilson toured England and Scotland for some years with t'lio great Rjtsori, tho Italian tragedienne, a giant iu her art, and in certain characters said to bo peerless. Mrs. Brunton played tho boy parts usually, for which sho was physically well suited, and still speaks with awe of tho magnificent performances of the Italian actress in such roles as "Queen Elizabeth," "Mario Antoinette," and Lady Macbeth in "Macbeth." She has in her possession a fine autographed photograpli of Ristori, and treasures an old silver bangle that Hip great actress once gavo hor. With such gifted parents is it any wonder that Miss Dorothy Iwtu'aaished stardom .whja comma' •' ••