ACTING A PART.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3382, 11 July 1927, Page 2

ACTING A PART.

The tendency towards artificiality appears to be unfortunately on the increase .n modern life. It has frequently been remarked recently that the li.ab._t of affectation is gradually undermining our national character, and that the old-fashioned downright “John Bull” _ is beginning to act a part instead of being hall-marked by sincerity and simplicity. .Because a foolish method has grown ■into vogue of considering that men and women are “too old at 40“ to play any further part in the active world, the feijf of being thought too old has caused many people who should know better to react on modern conditions and behave almost a,s if they were entering upon a second childhood. Thus they become, not too old, but too young at 40, losing .claim to respect; and, although admittedly the fashion of pretended youth is more to blame than the people who so thoughtlessly follow*.it, yet its influence causes the real grace and dignity of years to bo lost entirely. Easily copying the example of its •elders, the youth of to-day is also becoming unnatural, and is learning to do away with courtesy and the minor graces that add elegance to life. I have heard the new vogue of affectation described as “staginess,” and the attitude criticised as “theatrical,” but there can bo no greater mistake than using those terms to d’enouncc it. Art —real art—is simplicity. Greatness as an actor is only achieved by work, and conscientious work. To convince, it is essential to play a part on the stage with every fibre of one’s being. The part, instead of being merely repeated, must be grown into and lived as passionately during the two hours before the footlights as if the author’s situations had come suddenly into real life. Candour and honesty are equally indispensable as well in life as in art if it is to be successful and happy. The women and girls who paint and powder and under-dress, and the young men who are “ladylike,” surely cannot feel very satisfied with themselves on a critical survey. Everyone has the ambition to make a success in life: but to make oneself in appearance and manners merely resemble an animated doll in time interweaves that character with the everyday life and ingrains it as if it were real. Yet no one really wants to become anything but a straightforward man or woman, men becoming manly and women retaining their femininity. Acting a part is .utile, whether for amusing the public or in playing one’s role in life as a unit of it.. Even the habit of smoking lor women, which grew up apparently in an endeavor to acquire masculine habits as well as equal emancipation in serious things, is dying out, because playing ab man-, liness does not really suit women. Vi ith the backward swing of the pendulum of change, we are returning to simpler things. Even fashion dictates are losing the artificial note, and these have mucluto do with styles of thought, too; just as, years ago, when I played in “The Squire” in a print frock with plain collar and cuffs, that fashion spread all over Britain and America. But, though these superficial things seem to alter, for better or worse, and some people are temporarily affected by them, the public does not change at heart, and still reserves first place in its esteem for the genuine things. Artificiality creates its own atmosphere and can temporarily hold its own, but in human things like living and art every note must be genuine or it will be discordant in the harmony of life or acting.