RUTH DRAPER’S VISIT

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22464, 27 July 1938, Page 4

RUTH DRAPER’S VISIT

SEASON TO BEGIN ON AUGUST ti Application for scats for the Ruth Draper season, which will start at the Theatre Royal on Saturday, August 6 are coming in from all parts of Canterbury. It is not often that a star such as Ruth Draper is away from the big cities of the world. Critics and theatregoers generally arc amazed that one single artist can hold an audience enthralled for two and a half hours. The doyen of tiic American critics. George Jean Nathan, said: “It is difficult to find words to describe this wonderful art. A comparison with Charlotte Kohler-, for example, is not really possible. Ruth Draper docs not play a dramatic role. She portrays scenes from every-day life. She plays the part of a certain woman in a short scene in such a way Unit at its conclusion we know her as if she had been our own mother or wife. She does even more. She typifies in the one woman an entire nation. She suggests a background of social conditions. She does it with spirit, sometimes with humour, but, above all, with overwhelming knowledge. One feels in her art a kindly and gentle smile at life and at the people who inhabit this world. Ruth Draper, even when she persiflages, is never unkind. She cherishes affection tor her own characters, even when small and insignificant. We may perhaps say that she loves her neighbours as herself. “How masterly is this art? Even if wc so desired, wc could not find any words of criticism. Ruth Draper holds her public under a continuous spell of astonishment. Wc know we have enjoyed listening to the Countess, to the Dalmatian farmer’s wife, to an English married couple of the upper classes, wo are suddenly, by way of a change, brought face to face with a French modiste, head of a gown shop, straight from Paris, who is so real and li'uc Co Utc that in her we recognise with joy the whole French nation. Tin's artist possesses a great talent for impersonation and a great knowledge of mankind. We should also mention that she has an almost fabulous gift for languages. When she is the modiste—one cannot say that she is only playing the part of a modiste—one could swear that she was a French woman. Her English is as precise as it is perfect, and her intonations, when speaking Italian or Slav- language, is the acme of perfection.”