AN AMERICAN ACTRESS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12427, 16 February 1901, Page 7

AN AMERICAN ACTRESS.

r Arter seassns of light opera, farcical comedy, and the purest of Adelphi melo'■drama in rapid succession, it cam© as a fitting climax to our. theatrical education that we shopld sit and suffer throygh one ‘of tragedy.. Miss Nance O’Neil’s advent •was heralded, by a wealth of appreciative tenperlatives, which being for the most part, bf American origin, she could hardly hope to justify iii ,their entirety. That she has won a more soberly unreserved commendation from Press and people for her. undoubted genius is due less to her personality, which has been strangely little In 1 'evidence, than to the undoubted excellence of her methods. Her range of effective 'tragedy has been almost a unique experience for Christchurch, It is true that she Attempted wo Shaksperian role—and we might well have been spared the unpleasant . “Hedda Gahler”—but such plays as “Magda,” “Elizabeth” and “Camille,” staged with historic accuracy in their outward surroundings, and interpreted with an appreciation of their inward character and emotion thgt can only be the result of exhaustive study, carry both instruction apd conviction, though neither is'paraded ’ as a feature of the performances. It is . often affirmed that the function of the theatre is to amuse only, and that tragedy and its accompaniment of torn passion and grey grief should he left to real life. > Actresses like Miss O’Neil show us how much there is to be said on the other side. It is related of one person of introspective temperament that, having suffered an amputation, he confessed that even the process of having a leg cub off possessed a certain fascinating interest after the first incision, lb is a modified form' of this sentiment, no doubt, that leads people to submit to being harrowed and stirred emotionally at the hands of an actor. Or an actress: in whom the fire of genius has been kindled. Then, too, there is a spirit of pleasurable pain which finds its satisfaction even in .the memories which are nob all happy, and which leads a woman to brood over relics 6l dead and gone dear ones which , the thoughtless would hold were better locked away. An analysis of Miss O’Neil’s methods would he but a futile task, but she brings to her help a magnificent mastery of pose, a daring disregard of tradition, an appreciation of the fact that reality is not necessarily beautiful, and a general freshness of touch which at or.ee appeal to the heart and convince the mind. *f the has not yet reached-tho height at-.

tainted by the greater tragedienne's, whose experience has taught them the full value of every stop on the key-hoard Of emotion, she has this advantage, that a future of infinite possibilities lies before -her.