IGNORANCE OF ENGLISH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21781, 21 April 1934, Page 12 (Supplement)

IGNORANCE OF ENGLISH

■ LINES LEARNT BY ROTE ACTRESS IN COWARD PLAY Yvonne Printeraps, making her debut in English in Noel Coward's " Conversation Piece," confesses she cannot speak English and understands hardly £i word of the lines she has to repeat in the comedy. Coward gave her the part three months before rehearsals started, and for that period she did nothing but study the lines, having an English teacher to coach her in them. She learned them by rote, using her knowledge of singing to fix the sounds in her mind and throat. She did not accept an invitation- during the period, devoting herself to the task of learning the part. " Conversation Piece " is about an impoverished Frenchman of title who tries to place his ward advantageously in marriage, but discovers the girl loves him. Mme.' Printemps has several songs in the play, which is being done at His Majesty's Theatre, London, the stronghold of Beerbohm Tree during his brilliant career as a producer. Charles B. Cochran had so many applications f<jr first night seats—2ooo mail orders for 400 seats —that he instituted a week of " first nights " selling the stalls at £1 each for the first 15 rows. Noel Coward is himself playing the middle-aged guardian to Mme. Printemps' girl. The part was intended for Romney Brent, the Mexican actor with whom Noel struck up a close and lasting friendship on one of his American visits. He induced Romney to go to London to take a leading role in a revue Coward wrote, and he wrote the part in " Conversation Piece" for his friend, but when rehearsals began Itrent decided the role was not suited to his style of acting, so he asked to be released, and Coward took up the part. Brent belongs to a very close band of friends in London, with Noel Coward at its head. Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Gertrude Lawrence and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., are members of this charmed circle, as well as a few others.