IRISH ACTING

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume 4185, Issue 4185, 20 November 1934, Page 7

IRISH ACTING

WHY IS IT SO FINE? There are no actors to equal the Irish. I have long held that opinion, and after seeing the new play at the Westminster, ‘ The Moon in the Yellow River,’ I am more than ever confirmed in my judgment of them (writes Sydney W. Carroll, in the London Daily Telegraph ’). Nor would I qualify this view by saying that for an Irish play Irish actors are essential it the true spirit is to be caught, and that it is impossible for players of other nationalities to capture anything like the genuine Hibernian character, though, quite between ourselves, I am inclined to hold that such is really the case. Your Irishman seems to possess a sincerity and devotion to hi part and his play'unequalled, except perhaps in a Jew. ~ , , He seldom or hardly ever betrays that consciousness of his audience evident all too frequently in players of other countries. There is a quality that For want of a better term I must define as ‘‘exhibitional ” and apparent in a good many English, French, and German actors that seldom shows itself in an Irishman. It has its virtues, this exhibitionist tendency. It makes the player self-reliant, full of confidence, and less dependent upon either the play or his fellow players. But as against the absorption ox the Irish in their job, their complete subservience to the ideas and purpose of the dramatist, the exhibitional player must cut generally a poor figure. Few Irish actors are devoid ot a rich sense of humour, none of them lack the keenest appreciation of the dramatic; there is a combative virility about every one of them that in itself makes for drama and is of the stuff that all great plays are composed. What is there about the Irish that makes them such fine actors? Is it their happy-go-lucky, free and easy, quick-witted readiness for every emergency? Is it their instinctive ‘‘spoiling for a fight?” Is it the music, the clearness, the rhythm of their voices? FINISH AND POLISH. Is it, perhaps, their complete burnersion in their art, their finish and polish, always coupled with b eadth and strength of a technique that never reveals itself and is always skilfully concealed ? How often are we tempted when watching a first-class Irish player to say, “ This is not art, but Nature and how dreadfully wrong we should be if we came to that conclusion, r Of course, there are Irish players who are not worth the snuff of a candle. • When an Irish actor is bad he is very, I very bad, and nothing can save him. But . taking them on the whole “ there is no denying of it ” the Irish are the best actors in the world.