CHARACTERS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 132, 15 December 1928, Page 17

CHARACTERS

JUVENILE THEATRES Id. PLAIN, 2d. COLOURED A CAUSERIE Causeurs: H. E. Nicholls, Bert lioyle, Horatio. Scone: A plain room. Time: The present. H. E. Nicholls.—Characters, the genuineand original "Id plain and 2'l coloured!" "In my mind's eye, Horatio," I can still see many of the old figures. Yates as "The Red Rover," O. Smith in "The Dream at Sea," T. P. Cookfl as William, :n "Black-eyed Susan"; Madame Celeste as Miami in "The Green Bushes," and many, many others. Although my own amateurism dates from 1877, as a youngster in London and later in Adelaide, I had a theatre of my own. Horatio—], too. . ; Bert Koyle—Well, my association with the theatre has been long and iniimate; but it did not begin with the. ownership of a theatre. H..E.—But I mean a model theatre. Uli, 1 assure you it was a serious tiling with mo as a boy—tliat theatre in miniature, complete with proscenium, curtain, "drops," wings, sky-borders, backcloths, and footlights. The one play produced at this (lioatre was Lsaac Pocoek's melodrama, "The Miller and His' Men." Yes, I can recall the characters: Grindoff', the Mil' ler, Count Friberg, Lot hair. Kail. Claudia, Zingara, and others. They were all cut out of cardboard fiom ii sheet, "penny plain, twopenco i',ol oured." -Each figure had a. fixed pose for each scene in which 11 appeared, a fixed pose maintained with fine, obstinacy, no matter what alteration the dialogue called for. 8.X.—1 knew of these theatres, of plays like the "Miller and His Men,'' but never aspired in my youth to possessing one. l H.—A theatre was given to me by my father. It would have stood about 18 inches high, and was 20 inches from side to side, and probably 20 inches deep. The winding up of the curtain was a childish joy that time has not robbed of its zest. Lighting the footlights was a solemn ritual, setting off the red fire and firing a cracker was sheer ecstasy. The footlights were fed by olive oil (out of the cruet) and smelt abonlin .ibly when they burned out; the inooli in the backelotli was always round, made so with the help of a farthing, and ca.re had to bo taken with the handling of tho candle-end >it'the back of the moon. [To H.E. | Did you I have a gallanty show? H.E.—A what? H. —Perfectly simple. A candle behind the calico curtain and characters cut en silhouette. You can't buy them. The "Broken Bridge" was a favourite play with me. Performances by this theatre were given in the family coalshed; price of admission (boys only), one brass trousers button— | bone and pearl buttoiis'wen? not negotiable. H.E.—I should think, some ot the audience had difficulty with their breeches after a performance. H.—They did; but nails and siring helped in preserving the decencies. H.E. —In my theatre the characters were manipulated by slides. Competition to assist in these performances was most keen among my boy friends. Of course, aa owner, I directed everything, from ringing, up the curtain and ringing it down. I read the dialogue, I sang the incidental songs; and it was my glorious task to ignite the "explosion," which, iis you are , aware, concludes "The Miller and His Men." B.R.—As a boy, what-would I not liave given or done for such a theatre, for my fondness for the stage after many, many years' association with it is as keen as ever. • Perhaps you have heard of W. S. Percy's model theatre? H.E. and H.—No. B.R. —it was shown at the Chnstehurch Exhibition, and attracted a great deal of attention. H.E.— Well, lo resume. Theiv were rwo London publishers of sheets of dra mafic ' characters—tlie veritable "plain and coloured" West and Skell. West was earlier, and bis work the more artistic. He employed some of the very best talent notably William Blake, Flaxman, George Cruickshank, William Heath, Nicholson, Finden, arid others. The sheets were styled '' West's Theatrical Portraits," and the shop advertisement was designed and drawn by the famous William Blake. They were issued in two forms—plain and coloured, the former at one penny, the latter at twopence per sheet. Although the phrase has a depreciatory meaning, it was by no means justified by the drawings themselves.. The artists employed took the surest means of impressing the schoolboy taste by making boldness of outline and brilliance of colour their leading "notes," yet though it was not their vaunted aim to elevate the taste of their young patrons, they did nothing to debase it. West's sheets, though melodramatic in style, were well-drawn, the posing graceful, and in many cases the likeness to the actor or actress very truthful. H. —By the way, did you ever colour the plain? H^E.— 1 did. H.—And they were never so satisfactory as the twopenny.tinted article? H.E.—They were not. To colour a sheet of plain with a sheet of "coloured" as model was a task always begun with hope, but always ending in failure so far as emulating the glitter and brilliance of the original was concerned. And no wonder, for we boys know not the trick of it, One favourite colour was carmine, which in our sixpenny paint boxes was an unknown pigment. H.—No; ,".ch vivid reds, such powerful blues, such intense greens, such golden yellows, were likewise my despair—every boy's despair. Besides, there were sometimes tinselled and spangled effects hopelessly beyond any boys' resources. H.E.— West's chief man, Heath, used to heighten the brilliance of his 1 carmine by mixing sugar with it, and thus prepared it was kept in a bottle. This, with a truly royal navy blue (which went admirably with black), gave very vivid effects. Gamboge (also enriched with sugar) told well for shades of gold. A line ripe russet brown was used for the coats and breeches of elderly gentlemen, farmers, and rustic characters, and for the top boots of wicked squires and other villains and scoundrel?. H.—lt was not possible to achieve the "coloured" ideal, even with the shilling box .so impressively labelled

as "approved by the Society of Arts," and limited to yellow ochre, gamboge, indigo, ultramarine, neutral tint, sepia, vandyke brown, light red, vermilion, and burnt Sienna. H.E.—Yes; the "coloured" were a marvel of matchless beauty to me. Skelt came many years later than West, but he was not so good artistically, i'et he ran West, off the market by cutting the price to a "halfpenny -plain and one penny coloured." ' " B.R. —It is clear that with both of you the cult of the miniature theatre accounts for your interest in the stage. H.E. and H. (together).—No doubt. 8.R.—1 have already mentioned Percy's Theatre. It was a much more elaborate affair than those you have been describing! It was a big thing. Oh, it would have covered this [points to large writing tablej. It was complete in every particular. Had electric lights iv front and on the stage. All you had to do was to insert, a plu^ in. any electric lamp holder and switch on the light. For its time it was a mechanically perfect model of a theatre. The characters were not cut out of cardboard, but were modelled. They wove pushed on and off. in.slides by wires, and were stiff, lot anticulated like marionettes. I'm not sure, but 1 think Percy used to produce Shakespeare plays in this niniature theatre of his. What became of it I do not know for certain but after it was shown at the Christchureh Exhibition I. think he gave it to the Canterbury Museum, where it should be now, if my surmisV is correct. As 1 see it, the model theatre is an excellent way of. inculcating in young people a taste for (he best in drama and comply. a.£. — Undoubtedly a.—My toy theatre certainly- stimulated a taste for the theatre, beginning curly with the real drama. "The Bottle," at old Greenwich The atre. This was a teetotal play, based on Cruickshanivs's series of engravings of that title. The effect of the play was to turn me into a militant Prohibitionist at 'the age of nine and an ardent wowshipper at Thespis' shrine when Henry Irving and Ellen Terry were in their prime, and Mary Anderson, the Ken dais, J. Toole, Charles Warnes, and Wilson Barrett were in their prime tor. And then Gilbert and Sullivan lured me to the new Savoy (gallery) with their "Patience," the opening! opera, when the new incandescent electric, light—first hi any theatrewas almost as great a draw as George Grossmith, as Runtliorne. .-I.E. (rellectively).—it is very pleasant conning over these old theatre memor ies. beginning with the. pasteboard ventures of boyhood, passing through the impressionable years of youth to full manhood, and middle-age, I'lie plays with which penny plain and twopence coloured characters were associated had attractive titles for youngsters. There were gory dramas between 1800 and 1800. .Look al the titles, "The Miller and His Men," "The Bottle Imp," "The Dream at Sea," "The Dog of Mont, argis," "The Sea of Ice," "The Idiot Witness," "The Children of the Mist," "Tho Babes in the Wood," "Jonathan. Bradford," "The Forest of Bondy,'- "The Field of the Forty Footsteps," "Sweeney Todd. the Demon Barber," "Luke. the Labourer," "The Dumb Man of Manchester," "Sixteen String '■ .lack," "The Wreck Ashore," "Maria Martin, or The Murder' at the lied Barn." B.R.—An attractive list. H.E.—But what is to take the place tomorrow of the play of to-day? (End of Causerie.)