AN IRVING ANECDOTE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15056, 27 July 1912, Page 5 (Supplement)

AN IRVING ANECDOTE.

THE THREE REQUISITES. ■ Wekdkia Phillips Doner, relates in tie .- June Strand an incident growing out ?;!t| the first meeting of Robert Mantel]' with ; ' Sir Henry Irving back in 1882, when both/} were playing Romeo in London. Thejfe were reviewers who found Irving too old . •.'•;' for the youthful Romeo, and one advised that ho should make way for "the young ■;/ :> fellow over at the Olympic." Irving pro? -; pared a special afternoon performance in , , the Lyceum, to which all the players in, < London were iuvitsd. After it was over, -./', Mantel! went to the back of the stage, and ; Irving asked him how he liked the per- >,- formance. "It has been like an afternoon .'' at school with congenial lessons," replied . < Mantell. "How do you do it? How do ' you manage effects? How do you get* :; such atmosphere, such a realisation of the. glory of the tragedy, with such little of- * \ fort? Is there no recipe ?" 'j-V-j "There is; iudeed there is," answered Irving. "Simple, too, only ..'three things to remember. The first is silence, and plenty of it, behind the scenes, so that the i ■■ '•<< actor may be at ease, with nothing to distract when striving for his. shadings. The s second is light, regulated as far as pos-,,;', sible so that Nature is counterfeited— '. that, young man, is the recipe." "But," protested Mantell, " you* said" there wore three things to remember; you i have mentioned but two. Is there, a, • third'" , , T • ; "Did Imv a'third""- asked I/T J >%* ''' "Urn. perhaps I did, perils I did; but ■ yj what could 1 have had in mind, «»*P * - see. Ah, ves, silence, dij?h.i_, ..sucH-iim* "all I »v-actor»! fl,<»oraber tnat. m/ v. : boy, aatoim. Silence, light, «nd—ait<u», ■:; that is the third.'•• , .-:,:: ■.:■£:•.;.;-,, .;•-:.-'- .■* ;;y ■._•,.... ,;■■_.; , .... . ;,;.-■:;':•.'■ ,■ ' ' '':■";.; ' '-'.' ;; ;" '■■ ■'•■''rK- : - ; y■.■[''. ■'■':-'■,■ : : ; .. .' .' ■'■ %: '' '■ S'MS