The Black Cat | Page 4

to amuse? To amuse? Yes; but we are not all equally amused by the same things. There may be forms of humour which tickle some people more exquisitely than even that magnificent making of tea in an old gentleman's hat, which convulses the _Charley's Aunt_ audience. And if amusement be the object of the drama, we must take the word in an extended sense. I should myself roughly define a good play as one that, when adequately performed, can hold the attention of an unprejudiced audience from beginning to end, whether it amuses or merely interests them. It does not follow that because it may shock, or even bore, some worthy people it is a bad play. Even farcical comedy bores some people, with whom I cannot sympathise.
And now, if I have been rather hard upon the "well-made play," it must not be assumed that it is because I do not value construction. I do value it. But it should be vital, not academic, organic, not mechanical. Still, even mechanical construction is better than none at all. A play without plot is invertebrate, without bones. It is at his peril that a dramatist departs from accepted rules, even those respecting "strong" curtains and "strong" exits, though in certain cases weak curtains and weak exits may be more really dramatic. Then, valuable as dialogue is, it may be redundant, and make a play "flabby." The actor's rule, that all talk that does not carry on the action is bad, is worthy of all due respect. "You literary fellows want to say everything twice over," was the shrewd criticism of a stage-manager in a certain case. But an actor is often so absorbed in his own part that he does not easily estimate the bearing of any given speech, even his own, upon the whole play. "Cuts" at rehearsal are not unfrequently found to be too hastily made. Then, what is the action? Not merely the external incidents, but the shifting phases of thought, emotion, character, in the _dramatis person?_. It is these that give the incidents their value, and so give dramatic interest to the plot, or story. The dialogue and the incidents are but two phases of the presentment of the story. The action may be rapid or slow, direct, or with episodes. All depends upon the treatment; and the play that one audience finds detestable may delight another.
If THE BLACK CAT ever again come to the ordeal of the footlights, I can only hope that it may find an audience as sympathetic as that of the Independent Theatre.
OPERA COMIQUE, STRAND, W.C.
THE INDEPENDENT THEATRE. FOUNDER AND SOLE DIRECTOR, J.T. GREIN.
Third Season, Fifteenth Performance.
_FRIDAY, 8th December, 1893,_
_THE BLACK CAT,_
A PLAY IN THREE ACTS, BY
JOHN TODHUNTER.
DRAMATIS PERSON?.
Arthur Denham Mr. BUCKLAW. Fitzgerald Mr. NEVILLE DOONE. Cyril Vane Mr. ORLANDO BARNETT. Constance Denham Miss HALL CAINE. Blanche Tremaine Miss MARY KEEGAN. Miss Macfarlane Miss GLADYS HOMFREY. Undine Miss DORA BARTON. Jane Miss FORRESTER.
The Play produced under the direction of Mr. H. DE LANGE.
The ACTION of the play takes place in Denham's Studio in London, at the PRESENT DAY.

The Black Cat.

Act I.
_Scene: Denham's Studio. Large highlight window in sloping roof at back. Under it, in back wall, door to landing. L of the door the corner is curtained off for model's dressing-room. R of door a large Spanish leather folding screen, which runs on castors, shuts off from the door the other corner, in which is a "throne," pushed up against the wall. Above the "throne" hangs a large square mirror in a carved black frame. In front of the "throne" is a light couch of Greek form, without back._
_Fireplace, with chimney-breasts panelled in old oak, and high overmantel, in which are shelves and cupboards, L._
_Against R wall an old oak cabinet, with carved cornice, and inlaid panelled doors. Close beside it stands on a pedestal a bust of Demeter. Near the cabinet, halfway up stage R C, an easel, on which is seen the back of a large picture._
_Beyond the fireplace, and at right angles to it, a large sofa, or lounge, with square ends and back, broad low seat, loose cushions, and valance. In front of the fireplace an armchair, with a book face downward on one arm._
_The walls of the studio are distempered in greenish-blue, the curtains of the model's dressing-room are in rich yellow plush or brocade, the couch and sofa covered in greenish-yellow stuffs._
_Various artistic properties, tapestries, embroideries, etc., hanging up, or thrown carelessly over Chippendale chairs and the screen._
_Canvases leaning against the walls, on which hang designs and figure-studies in chalk and charcoal, with landscape-studies in oil and watercolour, nailed up without much attempt at arrangement._
_Near the front, just R of the armchair, an oblong carved oak table, with materials for wood-drawing, paint-box, water in a tumbler, etc., is