Eleonora Duse (1858-1924)

"The Second Mrs Tanqueray"
Produced at The Lyceum Theatre, London.
Review from The Echo (London, UK) - 14th May, 1900.

ELEANORA DUSE'S PAULA TANQUERAY

To put my point bluntly, Signora Duse's Mrs. Tanqueray is yet another revelation of a wonderful personality, but is, in no true sense, an impersonation. It is a trifle impertinent, perhaps, to attempt generalisationsupon a great actress's genius as tested by a limited number of parts and as refracted through the medium of an unfamiliar language. But, judging from renewed impressions of her Magda and careful study of her Paula, I take it that Eleonora Duse is most at home, or rather most surely finds herself, in the portrayal of yearning or suffering, or outraged womanhood. Her inevitable tendency it is to emphasise the more typically feminine, the more true-womanly aspects of her every stage-heroine: lovableness, yes and goodness, are irradiated from her countenance, even in her own despite. Now in "Heimat " this pre-dispositon of temperament did not too seriously hamper the interpretation.

What Magda lost in characteristic Bohemianism or truculent egoism she gained in passionate tenderness, while the "I am I" declamation rang out uncompromisingly enough as the cry of sex wronged and revolted. But with "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray," essayed at the Lyceum on Saturday night, the case is different; here the role is less elastic, the lineaments are more minutely detailed, and there is far less that can appeal to Signora Duse's natural bias. What is the result? Why, the actress deliberately softens down all the asperities of the character and accentuates all its more sympathetic features. There are no violent contrasts, no light and shade: the whole rendering is of a piece and its colour an uniform drab. The casual instances of insolence and ill breeding, the rasping jealousy shown towards innocent Ellean, the violent explosions of undisciplined temper, and the spasmodic touches of frivolity, dominant qualities all of Mr. Pinero's Mrs. Tanqueray, are pratically eliminated. This Paula has exquisite manners, and is quite courteous to Mrs. Cortelyon; she bears no signs of her past life in her face, and is the gentlest of wives at her naughtiest. This Paula, again, has none of that childish levity which inquires about the flat that she occupied with a former lover; above all, she has none of the tigerish ferocity needed for that harrowing scene with Ellean ("I'm a good woman") or the fateful interview with Ellean's soldier-sweetheart.

In a word, Signora Duse suggests neither the neuropath nor the demi-mondaine of Mrs. Campbell's realisation and Mr. Pinero's invention. But, by way of atonement, the Italian actress fastens on the slightest chance that is offered of displaying the gentler emotions. Her Mrs. Tanqueray really shows love for her husband, positively hungers for the love of her step-daughter: and when once the full horror of her situation is revealed and a tragic death looms inevitable before her eyes, Signora Duse's Paula reaches such heights and depths of pathos as the real irresponsible Mrs. Tanqueray could never have conceived. I might add that the author's stage directions are persistently ignored, that the men of the company give no hint of English environment, that the Aubrey Tanqueray weeps profusely into his hadkercheif, and that the only acting, save the Duse's, worth mentioning comes from Signorina Paoli, an almost perfect Ellean. But, compared with the new reading of Mr. Pinero's famous heroine, all these things are of little account, and that, too, though it is Eleonora Duse not Paula Tanqueray, a personality not an impersonation that the actress so brilliantly expresses.

F.G.B.