PRESS AND DRAMA.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18680, 1 May 1926, Page 8

PRESS AND DRAMA.

IMPRESSIONS OF AN ACTRESS. (moa orn own correspondent.) LONDON, March 18. As the guest of the London District of the Institute of Journalists, Miss . Irene Yanbrugh was invited by Mr A. I". Robbins (chairman) to .say just what she liked about the dramatic critics. lie announced that at the next District luncheon (on April 29th) the guests would be the Australian cricketers. Miss Yanbrugh: Oh, can I come? (Laughter and "Yes."). In the course of her reply, she said that she did not think it would be wise, in present circumstances, to say all ■ she liked about the critics. She liked them all too mueh, though she was keeping that a secret. While in London the values of criticism were important to anyoYie. who had a place in the public eye; when they got to Continents like Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand, there the. writer in the newspaper had more power than the writer in Kngland. The reason was that the public in England were so busy that they mainly glanced at the headlines, while the papers in Australia and other Colonies were read from cover to cover, read and re-read, and sent from bouse to house until there was hardly a bit of them left.

The consequence was that everything you said, did, and were, was known much better by the public in the Colonies than often even by yourself—(laughter)—and it was very difficult to live up—or down—to how vou had been represented. That made the power of the Press, great as it was in England, vastly greater in the Colonies. It made thepeople there critical. They expected you to be a little bit like what they imagined you should be by what bad been written about you. And it was difficult to alter their ideas. There was in Australia a great deal put into the papers about everybody in the public eye. The Australian people liked to hear the tit-bits, the little personal things, but wheD it came to London it did not to .much matter. It would not much matter here if your hair was shingled, or what kind of face-cream you used. That was not really of vital importance—the London people had got beyond it—but all these things mußt matter when you *vent to the Colonies.