LEAP TO FAME OF ACTRESS

Evening Star, Issue 23349, 19 August 1939, Page 28

LEAP TO FAME OF ACTRESS

MRS PATRICK CAMPCELL HOW SHE WAS CHOSEN TO PLAY IN ‘THE SECOND MRS TANBUERAY * [Written by L. 1). Austin, for the ‘ Evening Star.’] .' A ew weeks ago an article appeared m the ‘ Star ’ under tho heading t vr T'hat Hath,’ from the pen i "t ~ in which occurred the following statement:— ‘‘Possibly Eliza [in Shaw’s ‘ Pygmalion ] was Mrs Patrick Campbell’s second great part, her first being Paula Tanqueray. On the occasion of the latter role she ousted Elizabeth Robins from the part at the eleventh hour.” The Oxford dictionary defines the verb “ to oust ” as “ to put out of possession, eject, drive out, seize the place of.” Employed by Mr Allen in this connection. it implies a hostile act by Mrs Patrick Campbell and thereby conveys a totally wrong impression. One can only express surprise that a writer usually so well informed on theatrical history could have made such an erroneous assertion.

The real facts of the manner in which Mrs Patrick Campbell was chosen to. play her famous part of Paula in Pinero’s drama, ‘ The Second Mrs Tanqueray,’ are so different from what Mr Allen evidently imagines, and are so romantic in themselves, that no apology is needed for presenting them, even after the lapse of 46 years. The play was ready by. the beginning of 1893. By early spring it was in the hands of George Alexander, then a leading actor-manager, successfully managing the St. James’s Theatre. Ho and Pinero were both trained in Irving’s Lyceum School._ They were old friends. But even friendship did not induce Alexander to believe in the play enough to accept it at once for regular production. He doubted whether it would be a prosperous enterprise, whether “the public would stand it” After much discussion Pinero offered to allow it to be played at a series of afternoon performances without anv fee. That would test tho attitude of critics and playgoers towards it. However, before this could he arranged, Alexander found he needed a change in his evening bill, so he decided to risk• producing ‘The Second Mrs Tanqueray ’ in the ordinary way, Pinoro would not liavo made such a proposal, conjiled with such ah offer, had he not been already disappointed by one rejection of the piece. He had originally intended it for the Garrick Theatre, thinking of John Hare hi'the part of Cayley Brummie and Forheslllobertson as Aubrey Tanqueray. Hare declined it, thought it was “ immoral. ’ Or perhaps thought the public would thing so. He was a little inclined that way himself. Also he had managed to refuse almost every_ play of note in his time, not on their merits as plays, but for extraneous reasons. He did not like J. M. (Barrie’s handwriting. Ho disapproved of Oscar Wilde filling his cigarette case from a box in the room where Wilde was waiting for him one day. In this instance lie did Pinero a service. It is most unlikely that Hare would have hit upon Mrs Patrick Campbell to play the name part on which the success of tho whole play so largely depends. DEGRADED TALENTS.

In the spring of 1893 Airs Campbell ■was receiving a salary of £8 a week in a piece called ‘ The Black Domino/ and seemed to have no prospect before her but that of continuing to play absurd heroines in cheap melodrama. _ Indeed, even that means of earning a livelihood was about to be withdrawn, for the two brothers Gatti, who ran the Adelphi Theatre in the intervals of managing the restaurant called by their name, had given her a fortnight’s notice, alleging that she had spoiled an egregious piece of claptrap by her weak voice and ineffective gestures. Nothing she said or did, these Italian gentlemen complained, got over the footlights; they attributed this failure to her instead of to the creaking, mechanism of the piece. The young mother with two small children, her husband in Africa, the stage her only support, was in despair. Where could she turn for another engagement? She had tried many managers without receiving so much as an encouraging word. She had been to Beerbohm Tree, asking no more than £4 a week for a chance to appear fit the Havmarket (this was before he built His Majesty’s). Ho “was hurried and nervous ill manner,” and said lie had no opening for’her at the moment. He excused himself when she had won fame by telling her that it had been too dark to see her face! It may be that the unhappy young woman carried with her a tragic dark-

ness in those days. However, Fortune had gifts for her which were richer even than she would have asked. Within a- few 'months she had made the chief part in, a piece everyone talked about, and could regard her future as secure. One evening Mrs Alexander and Graham Robertson, the ' painter, were at the A del phi. They saw in Mrs Campbell’s acting something which had escaped the notice of the restaurantproprietors. The choice of an actress for the great part in the new'play had not- been made. Many had been called, none chosen. Miss "Winifred Emery (Mrs Cyril Maude) might have had it if her performance in the character of a real mother had not just then removed her from the stage. No one else had 1 proved'adequate to the occasion. Now Mrs Alexander had found exactly the rinrht person. She went, home, sang Mrs Campbell’s praise, insisted that she- should at any rate be tried fn a few days the heroine at the Adelphi received a letter from Alexander asking her to call. BAD OLD WAYS. Taking care to look her best, she called, and Pinero read thq play to her, or. rather, so much of .the play as concerned her. “ lint surely.” vou will object, “ he must have read the whole piece. How could she understand what it was all. about' if she only heard parts of it?” Nevertheless, it is true that she only heard parts. The whole of the opening scene., was omitted. The author began' at the point where Paula enters. That is - an instructive illustration of the state of the nineteenth, century English theatre. Actors and actresses were not credited with, intelligence enough to make it desirable that they should understand what they were doing. . They never had copies of plays to learn their parts from,'only their parts written or typed put. with the cues on which they had to enter and speak. It happened sometimes "that they never saw the plays in which they appeared right, through, and had only vague notions as to what they were about. Even the leading playwright of the ago so far accepted its custom as to leave out the important explanatory scene at the start when he read the, play to his future leading lady. He did, however, begin the practice of supplying printed books of the plays -instead of. merely parts with cues. Then Mrs Campbell was asked to read some- of. Paula’s speeches. She took her part, and, trembling, did her best. , Pinero said that if she could, act on the stage as she talked in the-office she would do. She went away with the offer of an engagement in her pocket. ' But when she. joyfully told this good news to the brothers Gatti, they Said that if Pinero and Alexander wanted her at the St. James’s she . must be of some value to the Adelphi. So they withdrew the fortnight’s notice and forced her to fulfil her contract by remaining with them arid continuing to play in their wretched melodrama. However, it was so bad that they were obliged to take it off, and she was told she could go to the St. James if she were still wanted there.

In the meantime the part- had been filled. Pauja was te be acted by Miss Elizabeth Robins, who had distinguished’ herself in Ibsen’s ‘ Hedda Gabler ’ and ‘ The Master Builder.’ (She later made a name as a novelist.) Mrs Campbell heard this sorrowfully. Pinero was sorrowful. too. So long ns, there was a possibility of getting her he had made up his mind that ho. one but, she should have the part. He saw in her just the tvpe he needed. He’ knew that the playing of Paula must make all the difference to the play. However. Fate and the'brothers Gatti seemed to have decided against him. MAGNANIMOUS MISS ROBINS.

But on the very day fix#d. for . the reading of the play to the whole company the situation was changed. On this day Alexander was lunching at a house in Portland Place. Pinero called for him,, so that they might go to the St. James’s ■ Theatre together. Alexander „ came running . out of the house excitedly. “We can get Mix Campbell,” he said,we can get her after all 1 ” .

Still the difficulties were not all gone. There was Miss Robins, waiting at the theatre to hear the play read, with the contract in her pocket which gave the part to her. Driving to the theatre, the two men talked over their problem. When they got to St.' James’s street Pinero said: ” Look here, Alex., thiais vour job. I’ll go for a walk in St, ‘James’s Park and come back in half an hour to road the play either to Miss Robins or, to Mrs Campbell. You must settle which it is to be.” . _ Alexander said to Miss Robins tha* he would tell her frankly what the position was. ' I’ll put my cards on the table. You know the part was offered to Mrs Campbell before you had it. AVell, she has been set free.. She is ip the theatre now. What am Ito dor Then Miss Robins made a reply which forces one to think nobly of human nature. .’She saidr ”Mr Alexander this is the chance of my life. .It s atp the chance of Mrs Campbell’s life. She is a friend of mine. I shall not take the chance from her.” • When one remembers what are the changes and ■ chances ■of a stage career, hbW precarious it is. at-best —when one thinks of the opportunity, offered to an actress of imagination by such, a part in such a. play—one must bow the head with admiring; resjpeot before such generosity of soul. The world is the better for such'unselfishness as that. ' To her , successor Miss Robins wrote a letter full of-kindly comradeship. . ■ “ It is the kind of part,” she said, “ that comes along once in an actress’s lifetime, seldom oftener, and that it has come to you is my best consolation for having lost it myself. You will play it brilliantlj;. and your loplservice in less congenial roles will find its reward in this gorious new opportunity. There is to miy mind no woman in London so enviable at this moment, dear savage, as yoii.” , The, foolish gibe that the stage is a sure breeder of cnvjr, hatred, and all uncharitableness shrivels in the warm glow of such magnanimity as that. CLASH OF TEMPERAMENTS. As the run of the play went on a clash of temperaments between Alexander and his leading lady, to whose nuick sympathies his manner seemed (-'old and official, grew more and more noticeable. One night Mrs Campbell was seized with a fit of the giggles during the play. At the end of the, act Alexander sent hi» man to present his compliments to Mrs Campbell and to ask her not to laugh at him on the stage. The actress sent a message back “that she never laughed at Air Alexander’ on the stage; she waited until she got home!” So puzzled, bewildered by this treatment was the kindly, courteous George Alexander-that he was unable to be fair to liis leading lady. One evening, after the piece had run for seven months, Mrs Campbell forgot her words. There was no prompter on duty. Alexander had to fetch a book of the play and wire it to her. As he handed it to her he muttered, half to himself: “The woman’s drunk 1”

What caused Mrs Campbell’s loss of memory was her little , boy’s illness* She had been by his bed for 26 hours on end. Diphtheria had been feared, but the ailment turned out to be tonsilitis. Overjoyed with the, news but tired out,, the actress went off. just, in,time to play on the afternoon of Boxing Day, changed her clothes in a rush, got on to the stage, and could not remember a sentence of her parti The sight of the printed page brought it all back to her. She went through?: first act, then she went to her dressing room and began to put on her ordinary, clothes. Her understudy was ready to take her place. But IVlaude Millett—- “ dear Maude Millett.” MrsCamphell calls her in _ telling the story—Maude Millett. as kind as she was pretty;, and, she was pretty enorigh to-make the fortunes of photograph her from showing resentment against Alexander in that particular way.; ’• , That afternoon Beerbohm Tree was in the theatre. He had come-to see Mrs Campbell with the intention t of offering her a part at £6O a week. Her original £ls had been doubled by AlexNow she had a chance to earn what in those years was a large salary. “ Think, of your career,” counselled Maude Millett, and bought half a bottle of champagne and made her friend drink nearly a tumblerful of it. Sirs Campbell went on and finished the play, and Tree saw her afterwards and made .his offer. That evening she told -Alexander, she would keep her contract with "him, but off the stage: would never speak‘•to him again. For a little while -"Pinero was almost as much a' trial to her as Alexander. He sat close to her, wanted sto teach her every word and every look* “ She bore it'- like a lamb, ’’ testified ' Cyril Maude, who was one of the com- - pany, “ though to an actres of her Undoubted brilliance it must have - -been extremely trying.” Yet Mrs Campbell admits that “so far as trained technique went, she was an amateur,” and has always been grateful to Pinero for his ‘‘gentle-’' ness” and solicitude at this trying time. He would .send out .for beef extract if she seemed exhausted and stand over her while she took it. His quick recognition of ability, too, so,on, showed him that he could trust Her intuition. In one scene he wanted her to sweep all the ornaments and photographs’off the piano (that they were on; the piano illustrates the darkness ,of the age) to make spectators understand how angry she was. She urged that a woman like Paula would not ho “rough and ugly with her hands, however angry she was.” The author said: “All, right, my child, do as you like.” PLAYER AND PLAY. As a result of such indulgence Mr*, Campbell made what Cyril Maude;, out! of his long experience, calls “ the most enormous success; of any living actress.” After the first of two dress rehearsals, at which no one was in front save himself, the author went to the Garrick Club and talked en- ' thusiastically about her genius. At the second her performance was flat, stale, unprofitable. He made no comment. He . seemed to know that' she. was holding herself in for the first night. > Whfb that came.-she roused the audience to a pitch of enthusiasm seldom equalled in a London' theatre. . To say this is not to exalt her sliar* in the success above that of .the author. It was the play that gave Mrs Canape hell-the chance to thru! her audience. A dramatist is dependent on actqi 1 * and, actresses for. the!’ presentation 'of Ins ,work.! On them (unless it is thoroughly bad) haiigs the, momentary .acceptance or rejection of it. Tohim comes the credit eventually ; theirs i» the" immediate triumph if spectators are pleased. ; What those : who saw ‘ The Second ‘Mrs Tanqueray ’ talked about was Mfs Campbell’s haunting. beauty ; her flashes of petulance and scorn; he* wistful hope that the past might be forgotten; the stretching out of her affection towards her" stepdaughter Ellean, the sorrow which crushed her when she discovered that the girl, by soine instinct," knew her for what she had been—viz;, a woman “ with a past.” ! Some were _ inclined to agree withi J. W. Mackail, William Morris’s son-in-law _ and biographer,, that “ the play itself is exasperatingly thin here anil there.” He declared that Mrs Campbell’s “ noble acting, just the sort on* dreams of but never; expects to se&’’ demanded as the only part good enougU for it. Shakespeare’s Cleopatra. But when John Davidson, the poet, wrrita to Mrs Campbell: “Paula is - like an opal of many hues and lustres, with stains; of; life and, wounds of passion through which the disastrous fires glow that shatter it in the end,” he did not - mean to, attribute this merit entirely or. even principally to the actress. Hi* knew how much to apportion to th« player and how much to : the brain which gave the, player material to work on. Still it may fairly be said that no other actress playing Paula has left the same impression. The list include* Eleonora'Duse," Mrs Kendal; Miss-Olga Nethersqle. Miss Ethel Barrymore. Mis l * Granvillq, .'Bli*%', Gladys! Cooper.•!■ 4U followed more,or less on the lines ou which Mrs Campbell created ” th* part, if that expression .may be allowed. Duse put into it exquisit* touches of her own incomparable art. “ When she looked in the glass" Maurice Baring wrote, “ and realised that when she lost her looks she would . lose all, she looked suddenly and for a second 50 years_ older, arid One fe)b that the act of suicide with which tn* play ends was not improbable—whatever else it might be —was, in fact inevitable.” But no other actress Keen in the part got into it the personal distinction, the temperamental brilliance, which made it a thing of rare beantyia Mrs Campbell’s hands.