MODERN SOCIAL LIFE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 95, 24 April 1911, Page 3

MODERN SOCIAL LIFE.

DEAN OF NORWICH ON THE EFFECT OF THE STAGE. ' The Deaa of Norwich preached a striking sermon, at the annual service of the Actors' Church Union at St. 'Mary Abbot. Kensiiiglon, last month. The standards of life, he said, which had been i',et up by civilised communities were remarkable, somewhat haphazard, and occasionally shifting. The fact that one's talent might bo more showy than that of another did not magnify one's importance. The ridiculous social gradations, founded upon the most indefensible basis, accepted century after century, wero harmless because in reality we saw through their pettiness. Turning io tho possibilities of the theatrical profession, the Dean said tho brightening of people' 6 lives was no small thing. Tl c tired worker at the play got something which helped him to perform j the followi ug day's work. The intellectual stimulus an actor provided was not to bo got nn quits the same way as in reading a book. It was said an actor was not creative ; that was^not true. Two men coukl give quite different readings ion part, and yet both might bo justified. Wot not that creative ? Some, peoplo, he said, were of opinion that it _was necessary to beware of overorigmality in renderings of character, yot, at the same time, if. is necessary to beware of the over- stringent oroducer, who would hinder originality. Want of imagination was to-day a national curae.