Tragedienne In America

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31754, 10 August 1968, Page 4

Tragedienne In America

Rachel and the New World—- — Tragedienne in America. By Leon Beauvallet. Abelard Schumann. 224 pp.

To those who had bad the privilege of seeing th* great French tragedienne. Rachel, Sarah Bernhardt was hardly worth watching. Th* art of Elisa Rachel Felix was considered a “psychological phenomenon," since her acting when first she achieved her startling fame was entirely a product of her own instinct, her own genius. At the age of seventeen she was an almost instantaneous success, and quickly became the toast of all Europe and the queen of classical drama. She had been born Into a poor Jewish family, and had spent her childhood wandering around Europe hawking goods and singing in the streets. Beautiful,

passionate, inspired, promiscuous, she was also reputed to be unnecessarily avaricious, and it was probably her lust for money which lured her across the Atlantic for a tour of the United States, against the judgment of all her friends and critics.

This book is a lively account of that tour, written by a member of the company supporting Rachel, Leon Beauvallet. He was never a close associate of Rachel, and so gives only occasional sidelights on her character. But he give* a witty description of the disastrous tour, with incisive but not unkind commentary on the American way of life in 1855, as seen through his wordly Gallic eyes. Of American food, not unnaturally, he has much to say, for example: “Then comes in procession of a long string of nameless cakes, impossible puddings, and extra-

vagant pastries. They mix ricewith rhubarb, cream with gooseberries, and currants with peppers. It is the most inconceivable culinary medley. The palate is completely baffled by these strange and unnatural marriages, so that we taste everything and swallow nothing.”

The customs of American audiences also arouse M. Beauvallet’* interest: “At six o’clock the doors opened and the crowd began to invade the auditorium, and that without shouting, without any uproar, almost without speaking. Oh my Parisian public! That is not how you would take possession of a theatre. But Americans are not nc-sy except in business matters; their pleasures they take quietly.” In his description of the first performance in America he puts his finger on the keys to the failure of the entire tour. The French colony of New York had turned out in force and enjoyed the performance of the first playlet. But the Americans understood not a word, for there was no English translation. And when the second play—- “ Les Horaces”—began, the words were almost drowned by the sound of the rustling of Innumerable pages of translation turned in perfect unison.

Already, after the first performance of the company in America, Leon Beauvallet perceived that all the great ness of Rachel was entirely unappreciated by the American audience—in short, “she was received in the same fashion as a score of other artists.” The rest of the tour followed the same course. A humiliating fact was that though the company made money, it was not half of the fortune made by Jenny Lind, the Swedish soprano whose spectacular success had filled Rachel with envy. The tour was finally cut short when the actress caught a cold that eventually became tuberculosis which was to kill her.

It seems incredible that such a brilliantly successful actress should leave the adulation of European audiences to play in America. French classical drama is strong stuff, adhering to the strict disciplines of the three unities, lofty and noble of speech, with long tirades and a complete lack of the spectacular. Almost all the action takes place within the souls of the protagonists, not invisible events. Comprehension of the language would seem therefore to be infinitely more essential here than in other drama—for example, Shakespeare’s. The French public had thought Rachel both fickle and foolish to undertake the journey, and they were right. We are most fortunate that Leon Beauvallet was present on this fateful tour, for he gives an account which is of historic interest as well as being most entertaining.