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Observer, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4, 5 October 1912, Page 18

There is an apparent tendency for managers to revive the plays of ancient dramatists, Shakespeare, ot course, has been played in England with a good deal of continuity, but there are other excellent dramatists of the same period whose plays will probably never be seen on the boards again, even though plays are delved from the dust of anpient Greece. It is rumoured though that the great dramatic, or rather comic, classic of France, Moliere, is to be given a chance shortly by favour of Sir Herbert Tree, who it is said, is now preparing "Lβ Bourgeois Gentilhomme" for early production in London.

The Teatre Moderne, which is on the Boulevard dee Italiens, not very far from the Avenue de l'Opera, Paris, was lately the location of a clever performance by the "Tanagra" Company. By means of concealed mirrors the figures of the actors and actresses engaged on the stage were shown to be only a foot in height. Another secreted device reduced the voices of the company to silvery, child-like tones, the whole completing an illusion that was uncommonly pretty and lilliputian. TheTanagras greatly impressed the Parisian public, who are often critical of novelties that presume to be new.

The Music Hall is attracting the biggest acttfrs nowadays, and there should be a demand for suitable oneact plays. Since Sir Herbert Tree and Sara Bernhardt appeared in little plays before music hall audiences the actors in the " legitimate " have ceased to turn up the nose of scorn at mere music-hall artists, particularly since the salaries paid to big drawing items become so munificent. One of the latest to accept a big salary in return for the trouble of appearing on a music-hall stage is Ethel Irving, who has been appearing on the bill of London Hippodrome' with a couple of accomplished supports in a snort domestic play ( , " Dolly's Little Bills," by Henry Arthur Jones.