Tradition, Style and the Theatre To-day

Summary

Tradition, according to the dictionary, is “the handing down of customs, opinion or doctrines from ancestors to posterity, from the past to the present, by oral communication: an opinion, custom or doctrine thus handed down: principles or accumulated experiences of earlier generations handed on to others”.

It is often said that the English stage has none of the great tradition of acting which has given dignity and substance to the theatres of France, Germany and Russia in their finest days. The National Theatre, we are told, will create a similar tradition in England, a permanent company for acting classic plays with style. Style (I read again in my dictionary) is “the general formal characteristics of any fine art”. A broad generalization, surely, and not a particularly illuminating definition. What exactly is style in acting and stage production? Does it mean the correct wearing of costume, appropriate deportment and the nice conduct of a clouded cane? Does it mean correct interpretation of the text without extravagance or eccentricity, an elegant sense of period, and beautiful (but unself-conscious) speaking, by a balanced and versatile company of actors, used to working together, flexible instruments under the hand of an inspired director? Such were the theatres of Stanislavsky in Russia, of Copeau and, afterwards, the Compagnie des Quinze in France, and, during certain years of Reinhardt’s supremacy, in Germany.