STROLLING PLAYERS.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 38, 27 August 1864, Page 3

STROLLING PLAYERS.

LIFE BEHIND THE SCENES. The dressing-room ! Let the courteous reader recall to his mind's eye the picture of "Hogarth's Strollers," and he will have a faint idea of the sight which met my astonished eyes. There was only one tiring-room, and it was used in common by all the company — all the gentlemen, I mean. ; for, as usual, the ladies had a room to themselves. Hitherto I had only seen the sunny side of things befor* the curtain — now I was introduced to the seedy side behind the curtain. We had rehearsed " Hamlet " in our every-day clothes, but I in the evening I saw the company in deshabille. The scene is absolutely quite indescribable, or could only be reproduced by the graphic pen of a Boz. " Motley's your only wear " may be a motto among actors at all times, both on and off the etage. Here, at any rate, I saw many of the°shift» and dodges to which the poor player must resort to keep up appearances in a small country town. The whole of the " gentlemen " constituting the male part of the company were before me, numbering eight individuals. In one corner of the room was the individual who was to play Laertes, apologising for again being minus his shirt, it having been sent this time to get a new breast put in last time, it was away getting re-tailed. In the middle of the floor stood the King, a fine " ould " Irishman, who, while arranging his Tobes (and this was no easy matter, as they would not button on him), kept bewailing the loss of an " illigant " pair of • toights,' and a huge box of books, which had gone the way of all theatrical properties i.e., lent to "my uncle ', in a bad season at Clonmel, where Paddy had been manager of a strolling company — a family company, most of his children having been celebrated as infant phenomena in various country theatres. "We may as well mention, by way of parenthisis, that all players have great losses to mourn over, and particularly at dressing time give vent to their lamentations, as it is at that hour they most feel the want of them. I never yet, in the whole round of my travels, met an actor who had not been ruined and robbed over and ,over again, both in hia ' props ' and books— in fact, such calamities occurred so frequently, that the unfortunate Bufferers, like the eels, must have been quite accustomed to them — indeed so accustomed as to lead me to suppose that they would almost like the process. The gettSral ptibiib Wbtild smile if

they 'knew at times what is done with 'properties.' A great actor has often told that when he wag a stroller he frequently breakfasted on hia boots, dined on his coat, supped on one of his swords, and obtained his gin and water by means of his hat, a style of feeding which poor Paddy, with his isatiable thirst for a ' dhrop of the crathur,' had often to have recourse to — hence his wailing over this ' illigant toights.' Next to the King wae Hamlet's friend Horatio, who was pas tiently endeavoring to close up a renwhich, much to his chagrin, had made its appearance in a prominent part of one of his most necessary vestments, and that, too, at a very inappropriate moment, namely, when he was kneeling on the previous evening, according to the stage direction, to pay addresses to a lady in a comic drama, in which he acted the lover. The first actor was a mauvis sujet, steaming with raw whisky and boasting of how many glasses, or rather cupfuls, he had drunk during the day. He was beseeching the previous newcomer, a novice like myself, for the loan of a collar (his own being, as usual, lent). Polonious was taking huge pinches of snuff, and scattering it all over the wig he was engaged in dressing. The First Gravedigger, next to the manager, the low comedian of the company, a quiet, unostentatious fellow, seemed the best provided of all the motley crew, and, for a consideration, he hired out some of his dresses to those of the company who required them ; but it is really quite wonderful with hoAV little an actor will make a good appearance. The Ghost (he was the wit of the company) stood before the fire eating a small mutton pie, as he said he could not be hollow enough in the voice unless ke was quite full in the stomach. This dressing-room was a large, bare apartment, over one part of the stage; a wooden board or shelf ran round two sides of it, and each individual had a share of this dresser. At dressing time there was always a great borrowing of chalk, rouge, hares' feet, whiting, &c. Sometimes, too, a gent would inconsiderately get into some other gent's tights, or by accident put on hia neighbor's boots ; and occasionally there would be a, fight for the possession of a tunic that was considered a good one— tho wardrobe of the theatre only furnished tunics and cloaks; each actor had to provide his own tights, boots, collars, hats, &c. Then would come a row, when everybody spoke at once, and the gent had to step out of the stolen tights amid the titter of those of his brethren who, having their own, could afford to be honest in the matter of such 'indispensables.' One actor in this company being for a time withont boots— he had lost the whole of his wardrobe in a disastrous seaBon — j us t concluded at Londonderry — was obliged to borrow, and had to be accommodated as well as possible by those whose turn it was to be 'off' the stage. "When every person had to be on, this gentleman, who acted a prominent character in the play — he was our light comedian, in fact— persuaded some one who could stand in the shade to lend him his boots or shoes, in order that he might be quite en regie. I have seen him make narrow escapes. Once, in a particular play, he had to speak a speech at the wing, while in the act of pulling on a pair of tight boots. That speech was mixed up with a great many ' Ah's,' and ' Oh's,' and ' Hang it's,' which were not set down by the author. — Glimpses of Real Life as seen in the Theatrical World and in

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