]
[Footnote 14: One is not surprised to learn that Sardou "did his
stage-management as he went along," and always knew exactly the position
of his characters from moment to moment.]
[Footnote 15: And aurally, it may be added. Sarcey comments on the
impossibility of a scene in Zola's _Pot Bouille_ in which the so-called
"lovers," Octave Mouret and Blanche, throw open the window of the garret
in which they are quarrelling, and hear the servants in the courtyard
outside discussing their intrigue. In order that the comments of the
servants might reach the ears of the audience, they had to be shouted in
a way (says M. Sarcey) that was fatal to the desired illusion.]
_CHAPTER V_
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
The theme being chosen, the next step will probably be to determine what
characters shall be employed in developing it. Most playwrights, I take
it, draw up a provisional Dramatis Personae before beginning the serious
work of construction. Ibsen seems always to have done so; but, in some
of his plays, the list of persons was at first considerably larger than
it ultimately became.
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