Plays and players in modern Italy, being a study of the Italian stage as affected by the political and social life, manners, and character of to-day . and concrete wholethat it only lacks of perfection by the tantalising rapiditywith which it passes away ! Benini himself is a fascinating person. Graceful,though bony and angular; adorably ugly in face—thekind of face which, though apparently expressionless, isa perfect index to what is going on inside. But if hisface does not change its expression, his body does. Iremember once some redundant phrase being droppedabout a man smiUng with his face
Plays and players in modern Italy, being a study of the Italian stage as affected by the political and social life, manners, and character of to-day . and concrete wholethat it only lacks of perfection by the tantalising rapiditywith which it passes away ! Benini himself is a fascinating person. Graceful,though bony and angular; adorably ugly in face—thekind of face which, though apparently expressionless, isa perfect index to what is going on inside. But if hisface does not change its expression, his body does. Iremember once some redundant phrase being droppedabout a man smiUng with his face, and the objectionmade, You never saw a man who smiled with his back!But I named Benini. I have seen him walk away,shrugging his shoulders; the hands, the long delicatehands, slightly spread out, while the elbows were close tothe sides. If it was not a smile, I do not know one whenI see one. At any rate, the house responded with a two best parts in which I have seen Benini are II Bugiardo (The Liar), and in Una deUe Ultime Seredi Carnivale (One of the Last Nights of Carnival). Wehave, of course, an excellent liar in Charles Hawtrey;. riiolograph by HENINI111 Ml Buyiartlo THE DIALECT THEATRE 289 but I dont think his fibs come with the same spontaneousinnocence as those of Beninis Bugiardo. You feel that,with such a graceful talent, he ought not, cannot, be fencedby the humdrum limitations which are for ordinary he tricks the two girls, your sole anxiety is lest thepretty picture should be broken by the climisy work-a-dayhand that belongs to that hard-faced individual, he misleads and distracts his poor old father—well, poor old fathers ought not to be misled and betrayed;but—could you have resisted a son who slid so gracefullyon to one knee with a Father, behold me at your feet! ?And can you, being in front of, and not upon, the scene,with aU your ^neas-hke piety, refuse a laugh, when hepeeps round his three-cornered hat to perceive the effect
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, booksubjectitaliandrama, booksubjecttheater
