THE PLAIN TRUTH

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1046, 9 August 1930, Page 27

THE PLAIN TRUTH

Actors and Actresses Who No Longer Act

OLGA LINDO’S COMMENT

Olga Lindo, the London actress, who is at present touring South Africa, told some home truths to a Maritzberg audience. In the course of an address she said that the theatre w-as never more able to produce the finest art than it was today. “But,” she said, “society has entered our ranks and we mummers, we rogues and vagabonds, have entered the ranks of society. Some of our actors and actresses of today are so essenti.ally ladies and gentlemen that they have ceased to be actors and, although they have adopted the stage as a profession, they can never become actors. “Secondly, our dramatists, in pandering to the alleged public taste, have acquired so much pseudo-culture that they are afraid to be real, and it is this canker we have to destroy before the theatre can become one of the greatest forces in the world of art. “Thirdly, and I think . this is the greatest pity, we have, during the last 15 years, mislaid classic romance and poetic drama.” Speaking on the talkies, Miss Lindo said: “I think films have perhaps a greater appeal than stage plays to the general public today, for they are not afraid of being colourful and romantic, and even a little unreal, and are, therefore, sometimes more entertaining.”