THE PROFITABLE ACTOR.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13679, 12 March 1910, Page 7

THE PROFITABLE ACTOR.

It is a satisfaction to have &en the piece, and to have assurance of opinion tha.'it is dramatically a failure. A company of clever amateurs could possibly have done more for it: -since* Shaw, of all modern playwrights, demands an intellectual presentation— and an intellectual presentation is not to lie expected from the average Australian company, which by the law ot its nature succeeds best when it dor& a great deal of work indifferently badly. In the field of Australasian theatrical management, artists may "pav__ some of the time, but workmen "pay all the time. A --star"' costs so much, necessitates so many changes in the working scheme to ensure that his or her lustre shall be appreciated ; moves through, such an inapproachable orbit, and involves so many risks of collision or aberration, that at the best of times a "star" is only convertible into a> manager's silver-mine. A workman like Mr Julius Knight, or a workwoman like Miss Tit tell Brune, is comparatively a gold-mine. The worker plays no part really well, and many ■parts really badly; but he plays we"l enough for the public, and not bsidly enough to justify newspaper condemnation, except from a standpoint which is not the standpoint of the multitude, and is indeed rarely tho standpoint of newspaper critics. And the worker works: he is chosen to work. He never misses ia performance; he never misses a rehearsal; the stage is his home; ho leaves it only to rest, sleep, or travel. When he is resting and travelling ho is thinking of the stage, and when he sleeps he dreams j of the stage. He is to lie relied on every week if necessary for eight performances and six rehearsals; and his physical energy is no less important than his acting talent. An actor like Mr Julius Knight or Air Thomas Kingston or Mr Oscar Asche—who belongs to the same tribe, but has risen to bo chief of the tribe and to shin© as a "star" in a heaven of splendid scenery —is worth his weight in gold many times over. He is ready and able (in the public view) to play any and every part that is offered to him. Romantic drairia or intellectual drama, tragedy or comedy, Shakespeare or melodrama

—all is one to him. True, ho makes all look one on the stage; he is equally good or equally bad in .nearly every part h© plays. But the point is that lie is good enough: he fills th© houses and gains the notices. A manager may sometimes want more, but he can rarely afford more.