IRVING THE ACTOR.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1594, 28 January 1884, Page 2

IRVING THE ACTOR.

Mr William Winter, of the ' Tribune,' some of "whose ernvs on actors and acting are not uporthy to be bound up with those of Lamb and Hazlit, while crediting Mr Irving with " the tiamoloss charm of genius," is by uo moans bliud to his dofects.. which he thus enumerates The ' stage walk .is sometimes stiff and.angular, and has the effect' ofyin affectation; the stage talk is sometimes inarticulato and indistinct,.' Mr Irving's machinery includes strange gurgitations, darkly, lowering glances, portentious and vague; his voice is neither, copious nor resonant; his rango.of facial expression includes a wide variety and 'complexity of meanings, but these are mostly weird, eccentric, saturnine and mystical," The ''-New York Times,' in speaking of the third act of "The Bells," in which the best scenes of Mathias occur says" No violence! of realism is wanted to the scene, I There is no measure, no restraint, All is rant and paroxysm, Ho shouts, • screams, hisses, moans ; he staggers, contorts himself, flings his arms wildly, gi'ovols' on his face in a manner the description of which would be. most absurd, although in action nothing could be more keenly thrilling,"', .But it is added, "the audience sat bound," Tho same critic, : wiping under his own name, in the provincial journals to which he contributes, denies to Mr Irving both tragic sense tragic power. "In; fact" Mr Montgomery rb'marks," living as Mathias is simply a curious and exaggerated actor whom it is not possible to cill'a great actor. There seem to be both intellect and monstrosity ia the performance, but not genius nor ihe best art." The ' World' sees the precision of clockwork in his acting, and condemns his art as purely mechanical. It possesses the quality of intelligence, but is destitute of feeling. His declamation is accused of resembling that' of an old-fashioned parish clerk, aiid " there is a constant suggestion of manufacture about Irving's best work in' The Bells.'" According to the. New York correspondent of the London 1 Standard,' this latter criticism may be regarded as being "perhaps the most dispassionate and most fairly expressive of the opinion of the New York playgoer when calmly weighing the performance,". And the best actors and actresses in' Europe, it may be added, have successively passed in review before the audiences .of, that city. ' '

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