THE MODERN STAGE

Hokitika Guardian, 9 May 1929, Page 7

THE MODERN STAGE

VETERAN ACTOR’S VIEWS. LONDON, March 27. Mr Bon .(lireeit, the famous actorui.iiiagcr. now 71 years of age, ha:, given, in .Luc form oi : an interview, (sifine of hi* opinions on theatric;-, matters of the present day. "1 don’t think the public wants sex plays,” he said. “There is a small va'.gar public 'that likes meretricious plays, hut that public is so small and ,so very unfaithful that it can’t keep anc sox play going. Unless it is extraordinarily brilliant in the way of literature. such a play rail’dy has a rur of 100 nights.

“1 don’t think the standard of act ing now is anything like as high a when J first became a playgoer. Youn men and women are just flung on tli stage with very little idea of wha they are going to do. They reliearsi for weeks and weeks, become like par rots, and d. gcuorate into machines Our young people to-day, alilioug' they are awfully nice, are not ven fond of wjork. A Jyomvg man woul rather play a part for a year in some thing like ‘Young Woodley’ tlnu spend that year playing thirty o’ forty Shakespearean parts, but thinl what a much better actor lie would lx at the end of the year if he playec Shakespeare 1 “We have no laws in our profession Tt is all gp-as-you-pleasei. A young fellow with a pretty face thinks he is made for life and can play one pari for twd or three years. It is the same with young women of nineteet or twenty, I think the heads of our profession are very much to blain; for not insisting that young peoph when they first go on the stage shonhhave a regular systematised training .Recently I offered a young man £3 f week, a small part and thorougl training, hut ho gave it up for 26s f week and a walking-on part in a West End theatre. It was the glamour of going through a West End stage doo l and gazing down at West End audiences.

“To make anything of the theatri cal profession you must he an incur able optimist and have a sense o! humour. There are so many extra ordinary experiences that if yon take thorn in a mor,bid,frame of mind you will soon land in a mad-liouse. “Every branch of the profession Isterribly precarious. I know a man in London! who Tiajs Jspent .£IO,OOO over a production, but I don’t know if it will be a success. The people whe never get 'disfirmnaved ate the only ones who make good in the end. I don’t see why anyone should not gr on the stage if he has ability, and 1 often w’ish more public schoolboys and others would do so and bring to acting that enthusiasm which they give to cricket and football.”