FIRST NIGHTS AT THE PLAY.

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 21 August 1912, Page 3

FIRST NIGHTS AT THE PLAY.

+. HOW SOME FRENCH AUTHORS

TOOK THEM

Victorien Sardou, although he had been through years of experience, confessed shortly before his death that he was just as nervous at the first production of his last play as he had been at the first. He went through anew all the sufferings he had felt at his first play.

The younger Dumas could never control his nerves on the first night of one of his plays, and in that respect differed from his more philosophic father, who refused to become excited. It was his custom to take dinner at some restaurant near the theatre in which his play happened to be produced. Th\s dinner always comprised as many courses as the play contained acts, and between every intermission in the play as well as in the dinner the son went from the theatre to the restaurant to report on the progress of the drama. If the play was a success, he had finished his dinner when the last curtain fell and could go and congratulate the actors and receive theirs. If it had been a failure, he had finished his dinner and could go home.

Balzac, who kept his nerve so completely on the presentation of all his dramas, stood on one occasion in front of the theatre and sold for a very large sum the author's tickets which went to him. He demanded a special price on the ground that they had been the property of the author, and got it.

Paul de Rock used to sit in the pit and criticise in an audible tone every feature of the first performance of his plays. He damned the actors, the scenery, the author, and everything else. One night he made himself so objectionable to a neigbhour that the man. ejected him bodily, only to learn at the door that he was maltreating the author of the new play.

Casimir Delavigne always avoided any such experiences by remaining at home during the performance of one of his new dramas.

Eugene Scribe, who at one time dominated the French stage, developed on the first nights of his plays the greatest activity, going from one actor to another to impart to him as much courage as possible. He had none .limself. however, and it is saidtha* during the progress of the play he invariably chewed his handkerchief into pieces,rso great was his agitation and his effort to conceal it by constantly putting his handkerchief to his lips.