| Show THE THEATRE LIBRE Account of M Antoines Efforts to Advance the Drama Email Beginning of a Ventura That Has 0 Proved a Great Success Behears 0 ine in a Cellar i I i Special Correspondence of THE HERALD PJLHIS Nov 15It is extremely difficult for a stranger to witness a performance at I the Theatre Libra in Paris The tickets r ore sold only to members and have to be I bought at the beginning of the season I I Nobody knows when the performance will i take place Suddenly the members receive i re-ceive a card announcing a performance t usually for the following day Only two j t performances of a new play are given J sometimes but one I i The Theatre Libre is an invention of I Monsieur Antomej now only SO years f j j JL old Ho baa shown himself a great organizing j 1 v or-ganizing power and he now thinks seriously XL se-riously of building a new theatre son the Boulevard near the opera I I r s r I irr t t r M ANTOINE Though the Theatre Libre only gives 0 eight or ten performances a year thev I have produced more new pieces than all the theatres of Paris put together They have brought out thirty authors who had never seen tha footlights before and also introduced remarkable plays of foreign dramatists like Verza Tolstoi Turgenjew and Ibsen No branch of the dramatic art Baa been left untried Banvilles graceful poem The Kiss has found a shelter beside be-side The Lover of Christ depicting Magdalenes love and the fearful Tower of Darkness by Tolstoi Monseur Antoine has recruited his company com-pany entirely from amateurs and beginners The Power of DarknEss has been per formed by a company consisting of seamstresses seam-stresses servants officials of the ministry chemists architects commercial travelers even a secretary of the police force tho proprietor of a restaurant and manufac turers of bronzes The player of the lead I Ing part of Niklta Monseur Mevisto had never stepped on a stage before They have the idea that the part of a servant girl in order to be acted naturally must be done by a servant girl J e i etc and how far they have succeeded may be judged from the criticism of Molchorde Vogue the best connoisseur of Russian customs and manners in Prance For the first time on the French stage we have seen costumes scenery and accessories which have been taken from the real every day life of the Russian peoplo without these the-se and tasteless embellishments of the comic operas With Ibsen however they were less successful suc-cessful the critics could only praise Antoines Oswald in the Ghosts and found the rest something to be pitied Nevertheless the Theatre Libre has become be-come a school for acting which deserves in every way to be compared to tho conservatoire conserva-toire In the Rue Bergere the dramatic students learn delsarte and recitation in the conventional way and enjoy personal intercourse with Got Delaunay Maubant and Worms perhaps only ten hours a year In the Rue Blanche on the contrary con-trary Antoines pupils come into continual I contact with him they learn to represent real human beings who walk talk and stand naturally Nothing will explain the difference between r be-tween the two schoals better than a simple example of their respective methods Supposing I Sup-posing a letter has to be carried in by a ser i vant on the contents of which the public is i aware the denoument of the play depends The young actor at the Comedie Francaiee if be would simply come in gracefully and offer the letter in an offhand manner would be afterwards criticised by the stage manager for neglecting to concentrate the the attention of the public at this critical momentr while Antoine would encourage his actor to avoid any diversion from the most natural behavior and Antoine has created a sensation before the most spoiled audience of firstnighters and theatrical gourmands in Paris London and Brussels This reminds one of Stendhal who when he was asked if he ever saw a satisfactory performance of one of his plays answered Yes once in Italy by mediocre aotors in I a barn I l I M Antoine has studied the Memingen I company carefully and with the most relined re-lined appreciation of its merits be has not failed to recognize their faults but also understands un-derstands that they owe their great success to their disciplined ensemble Such an ensemble en-semble where no virtuosolike rendering of a part will ever be allowed is one of the principal aims of Antoines company An toines actors do not paint or make up they always use worn costumes except when a new one is in place as with a dude They endeavor to talk as in ordinary ordi-nary conversation negligent even inde stinct and continually interrupting each others sentences They keep up conversations conver-sations with the back turned to the audience Some of their productions produc-tions of modern plays have also revealed a peculiarity in stage managing in representing rooms in their original size while the others generally make them of colossal dimensions that never exist in reality Then again in producing pro-ducing a farm yard for instance they only give one corner of it very similar to the pictures of the impressionists Nor are their light effects less curious they have no footlights and m reproaching a room at evening a lamp is placed on the table shining shin-ing on the actors seated around while the rest of the room is left in shadow While a Theatre Libre is being successfully success-fully organized in Berlin and in London and in Copenhagen the plans for the new house on the boulevard have been finished It has been designed by Henri Grandpierre and commended by EiffeL It will be constructed con-structed entirely of iron with 900 seats about 50 per cent cheaper than in the other theatres Following the Bayreuth system there will be no side seats only orchestra stalls an amphitheatre and a row of boxes every seat commanding a complete view of the stare Space will be allowed under every seat to stow away ones overcoat and hat At the beginning of every act the doors will be closed automatically and the audience will not be disturbed by late arrivals ar-rivals There will be numerous foyers smoking reading and writing rooms all with telephone connections A special room will also be reserved for the critics j Special arrangements are made to secure satisfactory ventilation Stage machinery 0 and tbo orchestra will be after the Bay reuth model The theatre Libre considers 500000 francs a year sufficient for all erpenaes and so the company can expect to do a good business even if the theatre should only behalf be-half filled at the average performance C SHADAKICUI HAHTMANX I o i SNAPPED on IIEit IOSC |
