She Makes You See Things

Radio Record, 22 July 1938, Page 15

She Makes You See Things

HIS is not an interview with Ruth Draper, the "one woman stage company." In the first place Miss Draper is not yet in New Zealand to be interviewed. But even if she were here, it is quite possible that she would not grant an interview. She might, of course; but on the other hand this world-renowned American artist is unique not only in her ability to people a bare stage with up to 50 imaginary performers, but also in her dislike of personal publicity. Her: current tour of Australia is said to mark the first time in 23 years that she has broken her silence and granted an interview to the ress.

Rath Draper-The Woman Who Acts Alone

by

GORDON

MIRAMS

EW ZEALAND is worried about the need to fill its bare, open spaces and defend its shores. Without having recourse to Japanese immigrants, I suggest that the easiest way out of the population difficulty might be for the Government to hire Ruth Draper to conjure up imaginary people to settle on our land and swell the ranks of our army. . Absurd? Yes, of course. Yet within the four walls of a theatre, Ruth Draper can do something like that. With nothing more to help her than a couple of chairs, a table, a shawl and a few hats, and a man to pull up the curtain, she is able, in her amazing character studies, to people the stage with imaginary performers and make them live so effectively that the audience does not look at her but at the other characters whom she has created from thin air and the magic of her art. I have not yet seen Ruth Draper myself, but I have spoken with those who have attended her performances in London, and they tell me there really is something almost magical about this slight, middle-aged woman who acts alone. In a more superstitious age she would quite possibly have been

purnt aS a witeo. Call it "mass hypnotism" if: you like, butwhen Miss Draper ap pears alone on_ the stage she has a company of all the talents behind her. _ Like a wizard’ she summons them one by one from the thin air and gives them shape and reality in the mind of her audience. "She sits at a table and makes believe to eall someone on the telephone," a friend told me "With her very first words you now, by the subtle tones of her voice, what kind of person it is she is talking, to... She rings for a maid, and she makes you see a rosy cheeked, white-capped damsel enter the room to answer the ring. » eo She clicks her

fingers-and a dog comes bounding in from your imagination. You not only see a dog, you also see what kind of a dog, and how big it is... ." In Melbourne recently Ruth Draper put on a sketch involving an artist (she was the artist. of course), and having gone through all the mimicry of an artist putting down her palette and brush and paints, she walked off the stage. There was a silence in the audience, broken when someone said: "LLookshe’s forgotten her paints and brush and things!" It was as vivid as that. How It Began ‘THERE are several stories about the way Ruth Draper began the career which has won her fame in IEngland, the Conti-

nent, the .U.S.A,, South Africa, and Australia, an d which soon will be winning her fame in New Zealand if New Zealand _ audiences know how to appreciate a unique experience. It is said that, more than 20 years ago, a young and sincere American actress played her first part in New York. She was a failure, but she did not retire defeated. She decided she could act better with an imaginary cust than areal one. And so, for many years, this slim, dark, quiet woman has peopled the . stage around her . .With all the characters she needsa rich and varied tribe Another story -and i think the better one says it all started at a dinner (Contd. on p. 40.¥

She Acts Alone

RUTH DRAPER’S ART (Continued from page 15.) party at which Ruth Draper was a guest. Finding an empty chair beside her, she amused herself, and others, by carrying on a lively conversation with the absent guest. It was so good the host asked her to repeat it. That gave her the idea for her act, To-day she earns as much ag £2000 4 week. A rich woman now, she gives much of her money to charity-no other actress, jt is said, is so willing to oblige with charity performances. In London she is so well known that She has only to drift into the city, put up a few posters announcing that a new Ruth Draper season is about to start, and in about three days every seat in the Vaudeville or Haymarket Theatke is sold out for the entire season of fiv or six weeks. In Australia where, until about two months ago she was just a name, the experience has been much the same, T is to be noted that, overseas anyway, her audiences are mostly women, many of ithem just the women she "guys" in her remarkable character sketches. She has a genius for satirical portrait painting-but it ig a kindly, gentle kind of satire. This is how the London "Times" wrote of her art: "It is not mimicry, it is not caricature; it is not, in the world’s representative sense, acting. It is fluid ‘triticism, drawing its strength less from Miss Draper’s power to represent a particular woman in particular circumstances, or to suggest the pre sence of things invisible in her drama, than from the genius with which she draws her audience, which ig mankind, into her critical net..." Miss Draper admits that she asks a lot from her audiences. It is hard work for them; they have to think hard and fast; but generally she finds them remarkably responsive, even in this part of the world where her art is unfamiljar. "PHE task of Miss Draper’s manager is an easy one. Most actors and actresses and theatre managements employ large staffs of men and women to think up publicity stunts and new ways of intriguing public interest. It igs a Side of show life that is practically inseparable from the show itself. But With Ruth Draper it is different, Although she realises that publicity Sy necessary, she does not court it. © in fact, she almost fears it. Certainly, she shuns any attempt to interview her, and off-stage is most inconspicuous and unassuming, She must have liked the Australians. It is said that the interviews which she gave the Australian Press during her current tour were the first of her career-but even they were brief and sketchy. "For personal reticence, Greta Garbo is A gregarious chatterbox in comparison," wrote one journalist. Apart from publicity, however, Miss Draper’s manager has an easy life. Not for him the worry of keepir= 2 cast together and smoothing out their differences of opinion, No worry about

transport or engaging stage hands, or moving bulky scenery and masses of costumes about the country. Miss Draper travels light-two or three suitcases are sufficient for her personal and professional wardrobe. She ean arrive at a-theatre four or five minutes before -the curtain goes up-and be in plenty of time for her performance. She uses practically no make-up. OR is there any worry about authors 4nd royalties, Miss Draper creates all ‘her ‘own sketches. In her time she has ‘created about .50, containing 150 characters, though she seldom. uses them all. She denies that she ever consciously observes people with a view to eopying them.. Her characters are original creations, drawn from her own imagination .and understanding of life. If’ she liked, she could probably be a great novelist or playwright. This is acknowledged by ‘other ar‘tists. A. P. Herbert, the famous novel"ist, said of her: "Confound ‘the’ wo‘man! ‘That’ three-piece sketch about Mr, Clifford has as much meat in it as a Shakespearean tragedy.’ Mr. Eugene O'Neill might have made’a seven-hour drama out of it. Men have concocted protracted trilogies out of much less _ material." And once, after listening to a Draper ‘performance, the late Sir James Barrie remarked: "If I could remember half the lines in that sketch I could make five or six good plays out of it." Just how remarkable that tribute was is shown when it is put alongside Ruth Draper’s own explanation of her methods. "As the idea of a character grows in my mind I may work out a form on paper and jot down a few sub-titles, hut my sketches are never written down in any completeness. I just work as I go. and may alter lines or adopt new ones as I present the character on the stage, to suit the reactions of the audience. Although I am frequently sent manuscripts for my consideration, I rarely even read them lest I should find myself absorbing other people’s ideas. Henry James once wrote a sketch for me. It was very clever, but quite unsuitable for my work." And finally, Ruth Draper has stead-. fastly turned down handsome offers from film companies, broadcasting services’ and gramophone recording companies, She feels that her art would be lost in any medium which tended to ‘make it. wooden or mechanical. She Must have the audience in the theatre to act as her prompter in everything she (oes, «