A DIALOGUE WITH W. H. AUDEN
75
a type. When actors could scarcely be distinguished from vagabonds,
as
in
sixteenth-century England, things were better, the art became
everything. Because of lack of detachment women do not make
good actors; they can act only themselves.
I: How does an actor best fulfill his function?
A: By expressing an essence other than his. For this he must have:
great understanding, a double self, elegance (I mean elegance in the
broad sense, i.e. a knowledge of style) . What kept Narcissus from
becoming a great actor was lack of objectivity; all the rest fits in:
seriousness, rejection, self-love. In the dramatic situation the essence
acted is not anxious. In real life the human being starts out with
existence and acts to a certain extent; his acted self remains a pos–
sibility. That is, he must make a compromise.-What lies in back
of the actor's deed? Definite thoughts and emotions, whereas in the
ordinary world motives usually remain veiled. In order to round out
the play the actor must choose between two alternatives but the
human being caught in life pursues a course that evades the neces–
sity for making choices. To most of us living has the air of a Russian
expressionist play the third act of which has been lost. With great
determination human beings contrive to make their surroundings
sufficiently exciting so that they are kept in a state of passion which
dictates what they will do next.
I: What I .admire most in an actor is the perfection of external
action, the stage movement.
A: Most men think they want to live in the moment but unable to
bear the consequences they go to a theater instead. For this medium
gives them iIIusion without involvement.- Have you read Sacheverell
Sitwell's
Autobiographic Fantasia?
He devotes a chapter to a de–
scription of four comedians at lunch. Above all what impresses him
is
the appalling quickness with which they open a cigarette case and
strike a match, their eclat, their "snappincss of finish."
I:
Yvette Guilbert-(I saw her in
Les Deux Orphelines)-seemed
to me a great actress. She had learned to convey many different
meanings by the rare gesture, by almost imperceptible movements
of the eyelid or a flashing or half-flashing of the eye.
A: For an actor nothing could be more important than the con–
trol of physiognomy. Yvette Guilbert's face was made for visual
