ACTRESS IN A DAZE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 228, 26 September 1931, Page 18 (Supplement)

ACTRESS IN A DAZE

APOLOGY APTER PERFORMANCE WORST PERFORMANCE OF CAREER The opening performance by the famous actress Ethel Barrymore of “The School for Scandal” at Denver has had a sequel said to be unique in the history of the stage, states a New York correspondent. Dramatic critics, expressing amazement at her “bizarre and unorthodox portrayal of Lady Teazle,” suggested that she should refund the money paid by the spectators.

One of them remarked in the Post: “Miss Barrymore took the unusual liberty of making the historic Lady Teazle more than a slightly tipsy character, mumbling her lines, or else frequently forgetting them.” Miss Barrymore, in a signed article, admitted that her performance was the worst in her whole career. She said—“l do not make any denials to the implications in reference to my performance. I was in a daze. lam positive nothing I ate or drank was responsible for this dazed condition. The long, hard trip from New York, the terrible heat, then the strain of rehearsal and arranging sets, the high altitude, and an accident during rehearsal that made me so lame that I could hardly walk, accounted for my condition. I suffered something of a heat stroke on the train, and was so dazed I did not realise that there was anything the matter.”

D. W. Griffith’s next film, “The Struggle,” will be produced in New York.