Marie Ney Talks Theatre

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 874, 18 January 1930, Page 24

Marie Ney Talks Theatre

Shakespeare Probed by Academic Minds SHOULD BE PLAYED BY INSTINCT, “You mustn’t analyse Shakespeare's characters ■ —• you must play them by instinct This interesting observation was made by Marie Ney, the Wellington girl who is now claimed as one of London’s most talented actresses. She appeared recently at the Arts Theatre’s production of Frank Vosper’s play, “People Like Us,” which has been banned by the censor. In an interview in the London “Era,” Miss Ney had some interesting things to say about the theatre generally. “I think the minute you use the theatre for direct propaganda you defeat your own ends,” she told her interviewer. “You drive away most people who come in search of amusement in the first place, yet whose minds are peculiarly responsive to ideas administered in the right way. The playwright’s, the actor’s —in fact, any practising artist’s —business is to present the truth as he sees it and in such a way that others will become aware of it too. PRACTISING ARTIST “I said ‘practising artist’ just now,” she remarked, “because you needn’t neeessarily practise art to be an artist. Numbers of people who neither write nor paint have acute artistic perception. While they are living they experience moments of poignant beauty. They see, beyond their share of joy and sadness, the general pattern of life. Such people are artists, although they may be incapable of even reading or writing. “But to return to the theatre as a possible centre of propaganda, I really don’t see how you can make it that. After all; nobody ever tries to employ music as a means of propagating ideas; its appeal is emotional, and the theatre, in my opinion, should have the same sort of effect. But perhaps the most important function of the theatre is to set a standard of language. And here, I’m afraid, the English stage rather misses its vocation. It could, and should, o|fer the English people a model of how their language should be spoken and written. “And I think,” Miss Ney went on, “that the theatre, although it must echo to a certain extent the contemporary tone, plays an important part in either uplifting or debasing public taste. That is why it should be considered a trust by the people in whose keeping it is. “I think the English theatre is lucky in the type of mind which it attracts. “Of course, a number of our best writers and thinkers seem to fight shy of it, but our theatre is served by a magnificent array of talent. There are more good then interested in the theatre in this country than in any other, I’n? sure. We are constantly slanging our native writers, but really

Marie Ney

we ought to be very thankful for them. They are appreciated on the Continent, at all events, for three plays translated from the English are so popular that they eclipse the works of native writers.” WATCH FROM A DISTANCE “Do the parts j r ou play colour your everyday life while you are playing them?” Miss Ney was asked. “To a certain extent, yes; but I never actually identify myself with them, if that is what you mean. I live with them, of course, as I imagine an author must live with his characters while he is writing a book. But I watch them from a little distance; I remain outside them.” “Do you analyse the characters you are going to portray or do you act them by instinct?” “Instinct comes first. When I have been playing a part for some time I can dissect my work and find out why I do certain things. But first you must act spontaneously; if you stop to think the chances are that you will do something wrong.” Miss Ney said she thought most of Shakespeare’s characters suffered through being subjected to probings by academic minds. “Romeo, for instance,” she said. “What is he but a brilliant flash, like a shooting star which darts across the sky? Yet people try to bring him down to earth for the purpose of diagnosing him. You mustn’t analyse Shakespeare’s characters; you must play them on instinct.”