WHY PLAYS FAIL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 892, 8 February 1930, Page 24

WHY PLAYS FAIL

London Actors in an Old Controversy DIFFICULTIES OF CASTING A statement in a London journal by Alan Parsons, the dramatic critic, that only about 26 of the ISO-odd plays which he had seen last year were popular successes has raised an interesting controversy.

Allan Jeayes, one of London’s best character actors, answered Mr. Parsons as follows:

As an actor I am interested in Mr. Parsons’ statistics. While we admit for the sake of argument, that good plays are scarce and good readers are scarce, is there not something to be said for the scarcity of intelligence in casting? It is not easy to cast a play, but it is not impossible either, and provided a good reader has found a good play, there is only the casting to be done. '

A leading lady and a leading man are approached (glorious term) . They are usually engaged because they have “names,” quite irrespective of the fact that they may both be mentally and physically incapable of fulfilling the requirements of the parts in question. But Miss So-and-So and Mr. So-and-So are supposed to be an attraction. I personally don’t believe that there are more than half-a-dozen actors or actresses who mean fourpence-half-penny to any box office—apart from, musical comedy. Novices in Small Parts

Quite 7 per cent, of the smaller parts are filled by inexperienced students from the various academies, while experienced actors, and more especially actresses, find they have to earn a living elsewhere—if they can. A good play acted by people who know their job has always been a sound commercial proposition and always will be. No one on leaving the theatre should be given any excuse for saying So-and-So “was not very good.” While this is justly said, the play is weakened, and the other artists are weakened, and the public is not getting its money’s worth. Acting is not a matter of opinion. An impersonation of any character is either a right or a wrong one.

Views on Mr. Jeayes’s letter expressed by the following people: Edgar Wallace. —-With most of Mr. Jeayes’s comments I am in complete agreement. Names of themselves cannot turn a bad play into a good one. There is only one actress in the world who can make a success of a bad play, and that is Marie Tempest—l am not. of course, referring to “The First Mrs. Fraser” as a bad play, but to some of the earlier pieces in which she appeared.

The big trouble with our leading men and women is that they so often confuse their part with the play, and are incapable of reading a script except from the angle of their own opportunities. “Nonsense” Seymour Hicks. —Mr. Jeayes says that, gpod plays are scarce. Well, we know that. Good readers.are scarce—well, I don’t know that. He talks about the scarcity 4 of casting intelligence. Perhaps he is right. There is nothing more difficult than to cast a play really well. What he says about leading ladies and men being often totally mentally and physically incapable seems to be nonsense. Owen Mares. —Probably the most successful policy ever carried out in the British theatre—the policy of Frank Curzon and Gerald du Maurier —was to secure the best possible cast always, irrespective of cost. The fact that there are only about half-a-dozen people who draw money into the theatre—irrespective of play or suitability to part—is well known, not only to all managers, but to the public. Robert Loraine. —Only those in close touch with an active management are aware of the profound and exhausting consideration given to choosing the most suitable actor for each part; and I believe that most managements think only of getting the play acted as perfectly as possible.

Cecil Kellaway is amusing Sydney by his performance as the long-lost sea captain in “Turned Up,” a new J.C.W. musical comedy.

London is still faithful to “Charley’s Aunt” as a Christmas entertainment, and this year its home is Daly’s Theatre, where it is being staged in Place of a musical play. The old farce has done much to keep various pots boiling since it began its career at the Royalty on December 21, 1592, and managed to stay in London for a preliminary canter of 1,406 performances.