TABLEAUX VIVANTS.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 337, 23 May 1885, Page 15

TABLEAUX VIVANTS.

1 suppose that we have all seen tableaux vivants at some period of our lives, although we may not have been among those who have enacted a part in them. "We all know these pretty scenes of still life, and the ludicrous efforts made by some to keep their countenance as they hear the remarks — sometimes anything but flattering — made by the lookerson. ' The}- are always popular and fairly easy to get up. Anyone can help in them, and where, if getting up theatricals, you may have to scour the country for a few decent performers, for your tableaux vivants you will only have too many candidates. Human nature, as a rule, dues not object to pose in graceful attitudes and becoming- costume before an admiring crowd. Bub the dilliculty of preventing people from assuming characters utterly unsuited to them is great. The black looks you get from that commonplace-looking youth when you mildly doubt the a lvis;ibility of his figuring cither as Homeo or the Black Brunswicker ! The delicacy with which you have to gently hint to the gushing- young creature

w ell on to her fortieth summer that Cherry Pvipe, after Millais, is just a little unsuited to her, though she tells you in an insinuating whisper that &he does look so sweet in muslin and mittens ! Tableaux, to be successful, should follow each other in quick rotation ; it is a great mistake to lot the audience get tired and bored in the intervals of waiting-. To guard against this, it is always best so to arrange the tableaux that each one should have its own set of representatives. lii> this way, as each tableau is being enacted, the one that is to follow can be getting- ready, so that there need not neccssaiily be more than ten minutes interval. It is a good plan to hang a tightly drawn piece of gauze across the front of the stage, as it sof ens all defects and gives a more filmy ijicture-like effect tj the scene represented; while a monster picture frame, of course, adds greatly towards keeping up the idea of a life size picture. Tableaux vivants, as a rule, are given in the evening. The hostess stands at the door of the temporary theatre to receive her guests, arid as it is a case of " first come first served," punctuality is generally carried to an. extreme in the eager desire to got good sjats. Between the tableaux tea and coffee are handed round, and later on ices ; by plying the audience with this sort of light refreshment they are kept in a good humour, and arc less likely to grumble at the long intervals of waiting, though these intervals should be curtailed as much as possible. When all is over the guests should be taken down to supper ; whether an elaborate one or merely sandwiches and claret cur> must depend on the purse of the entertainer, but a supper of some sort there should certainly be at the end of the evening-. As we think over all the many and varied tableaux in which wo have taken a puro, or simply looked on, how vividly do they all com e back to us; from tho simple unpretending one enacted in the back drawingroom, minus any stage adjuncts, and with objects of every day life painfully- conspicuous on the walls, where the portiere curtains, strained feebly across, refused to keep closed unless pinned, to the grand ones

on the correctly appointed stage with its elegant drop scene, footlights," and 'alFftio familiar etceteras.

drapery and bodice will make a, fresh-looking frock, and not au expensive one. Young girls at that age are difficult to dress ; nothing but white looks well for them. The wraps for the little folks for going to parties should also be white, and the white knitted shawls so generally sold are suitable for this purpose.