Fourthly, no play should be adapted by the manager so as to give
greater prominence than the text invites to any single role.
Fifthly, the scenic embellishment should be simple and inexpensive,
and should be subordinated to the dramatic interest.
There is no novelty in these principles. The majority of them were
accepted unhesitatingly in the past by Betterton, Garrick, Edmund
Kean, the Kembles, and notably by Phelps. They are recognised
principles to-day in the leading theatres of France and Germany. But
by some vagary of fate or public taste they have been reckoned in
London, for a generation at any rate, to be out of date.
In the interest of the manager, the actor, and the student, a return
to the discarded methods has become, in the opinion of an influential
section of the educated public, imperative. Mr Benson is the only
manager of recent date to inscribe boldly and continuously on his
banner the old watchwords: "Shakespeare and the National Drama,"
"Short Runs," "No Stars," "All-round Competence," and "Unostentatious
Setting." What better title could be offered to the support and
encouragement of the intelligent playgoer?
II
A constant change of programme, such as the old methods of the stage
require, causes the present generation of London playgoers, to whom it
is unfamiliar, a good deal of perplexity.
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