NANCE O’NEIL.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4259, 19 January 1901, Page 7

NANCE O’NEIL.

A CELEKRATED ACTRESS. To very few stage personalities is it given lo play from the mind or soul nnd not by book—to feel tlio situation, ami In speak and act from the emotion of it, rather than from the memory of a. printed line, and notes of directions. Trnl h Ui say, much of the blame lor the paucity of such original geniuses permitted to stand before, the footlights must be laid at tile doors of managers, whose sole mental question when they are asked to judge of the powers of a new actress seems to be —is she exactly like, someone else who “'drew money?'’ They do not look for originality; so there is small reason for wonder that they do not Ihul it. Even the great tiarrick really failed to recognise the genius of Airs SuUlnns, apparently been use her marvellous talents lay in a different department of the histrionic art from Ids own. He was a. very clever mimic, who could simulate any emotion, I hough ho experienced it not in the slightest, degree; whilo she was an emotional actress who felt blond on her hands and could not sleep for the whole night after she -ad first read '‘Macbeth’’ as a study, Siddons accordingly excelled in declamation; whereas, as Dr Johnson truly declared, “Garrick was no denialmer. There Wtis not one of his own sceno-shiltcrs who cou.il not have spoken ‘To be or not to be’ bettor than lie.’ The doctor, nevertheless, admitted him to be a master in both tragedy and comedy, especially the latter. Garrick actually barred Mrs Siddons out of Loudon for five or six years, simply because lie did not understand her—she was too original, and took her parts too much to heart. As she was emotional, he thought she could not be a great actress, whereas it was exactly in that phase of her character that iior greatness consisted. History has recently repeated itself in the case of the gifted voung American actress, .Nance is to appear as

ou Wednesday night at tin? Opera House. She was first diseovo>*ccj io melodrama, and when Mr McKee llankin, Jiev director anti manager, introduced her to Charles Frohmann, toe I'amous manager, although the latter d’d not deny her ’ undoubted talent, he completely failed to see in her a star of the first magnitude, for he simply declined to engage her, saying that “iic did not want to have any more gjv-on girls on his string.” So Nance O’Neil, like Mrs Siddons before her, went ir-tc the provinces, and the way in which she reused America startled the Frohmann syndicate. There is always more or lees of a hazard in daring to ho original; but Nance O’Neil, with her fin© stage presence, her strong and wonderfully flexible voice, and, above all, with the we manly faculty of living in the sorrows and joys of another, possesses in an exceptional degree the requisites ter essaying the difficult; task. Coming (min California, with all the western Yankee girl’s love of freedom and sincerity, she (mired in a- melodramatic, company, performing a. play named “True to Life.” awl before long Lie v.ord ini' passed from town to -.own, not that the melodrama was coming, hut I hat Nance O'Neil,, the marvellous emotionalist. would make her entry npru the scone and win her way (o pin lie tavour, as she had done everywhere , Kc. That power of lifting a secondnil o piece out. of Its own sphere, and making it worthy of attention, simply liv reason of the part that predominates, is one of the surest signs oi gmina i.i an actress. STio was only twentytwo then, and people who. saw in her ihc makings of a great tragedienne wore not do-appointed. When McKee Rankin had I he hardihood and insight to entrust to

1 1 or such parts as Fedora, La loi-ca Camille and other famous vo‘es, tin very names of winch challenge comparison with the “divine Sara/’ instead o coffering hy contrast, Nance O'Noil found a full chance to display her powers. She added to her renertoi'o English roles—Queen Elizabeth, Lady Teazle and Peg Woffington—and made hoi auc’jiencos laugh and cry by turnsWhile at tim es she is decidedly 'vied would he called a. tempestuous acr.sc-w she can also display the tactics of s:ag. line,“so most admirably in ciueter ; a.--sagos. When she came into piomincni notice in America, the critics a’l asked v, here she could have gamed mihe-ieur experience to carry her througo parts which the most celebrated aerresser- ef the day had only successfully studie.l in the light of much previous offer; at similar interpretations. Tiiis new exponent of the tragic mi insisted from the beginning in playing her parts in her own way, and atiei diree years of this practice she ha brought even those critics who sweab.v tradition alone to admit that, whither it lie exactly the correct way or nof. if i-s : 1 1 least a rendering with .strong individuality in the conception, and deep poetry of expression in the voice and gesture. Those contradictions in "'hidi all true tragedy in character development consist are displayed just :i' lilie.v present themselves to her perc-p----tion, and as they occur in human na|iin —enigmas which the onlooker must solve lor himself as best, he may. The (|iieonly Elizabeth, wit'll her patriotism and magnanimity, crossed hy ignoble t reaks of pettiness and insatiable greedj lor fulsome adulation ; Camille, with her sumngo commingling of the appeal for pity and' the challenge of the oufcasl to society; Lady Teazle, the worldly ".'oman, with her foibles and her sen-c all are pourtrayed with an intelligence that makes the famous characters stand out in clear relief in the memory. Vet Nance O’Neil plays from her emotions rather than from her literary judgment, ft is asserted that she frequently weeps lor tile sorrows of her heroines, and forgets her-elf entirely in the realness of the mimic life that is being enacted around her. Its wrongs and sorrows, its transient drolleries and turns of .smartness—even its miniitia- of action anti “property”—become so solid to her that she ean no longer see past (hem to the audience. .Sometimes people have complained that she has not acnnired the art of restraining herself in order to wait'for the applause of the ninheime. lint what has applause to do ' with the grim story -of terrible stress and suspense that the actress is living in? As well applaud flic dying gladiator because in; acts the .part so naturally, and encore him. as endeavour to stop a born actress from playing out her part in her own way. The .shod-: to such a nature on being hidden to wait in the midst of some deadly whirlwind of passion in order that the clapping of hands arid the, rustling of fans .and dresses may cease is like the sudden, awakening of a somriambnlisit from her sleep. In the part which she has to play in “Magda ” tins is especially true, because it is in the best sense of the.,word an emotional play—emotional to snob a degree as to take the actress entirely into the realms of her own perception of mental sufferings. The opporturiity of 'witnessing the performance of so rare an actress is one which the audience at -the Opera House on Wednesday night is certain to enjoy.