HARVARD STUDENTS TURN THEBANS SUCCESSFULLY

"Yes, I think that the Harvard students made a very creditable mob of Thebans", said Sir John Martin-Harvey to a CRIMSON reporter on Monday night after the first performance of "Oedipus Rex" at the Boston Opera House. The noted British actor was resting after his first appearance as Oedipus, king of Thebes in this classic tragedy of Sophocles, which was produced for the first time on Monday evening.

In this play there are several scenes in which a mob of over 200 Thebans swarms down the aisles of the theatre and climbs up on the stage. This mob is largely composed of students from the University and from Radcliffe.

When interviewed on Monday evening, Sir John was sitting in his dressing room, dabbing the last traces of make up from his face, and discussing the performances of the various Thebans mobs with which he has performed "Oedipus Rex".

"We do not always draw our mobs from Universities," he said, "Very frequently, on the other side, students from various British dramatic societies take the mob parts as a part of their stage apprentice-ship; but frequently, also, members of British Universities have, as here, composed our mobs.

"I never see the mob in action before the opening night,--my assistant, Colonel Campbell always acts as my proxy in the few rehersals which precede the opening.

Mob Once Refused to Appear

"Sometimes the mob proves unruly, but on the whole they have been comparatively well behaved. Once, in our production in the Covent Garden Opera House, the mob struck before the performance,--I forget now just what the difficulty was,--but at all events it was all fixed up at the time. I expect no such difficulty, however, in Boston.

"I doubt if there was so large a mob in the play 2000 years ago as in the modern version. When 'Oedipus Rex' was given in the Dionysian Theatre at Athens, where the play was originally produced the performances were given in a huge ampitheatre before an audience of some 19,000. In so large an ampitheatre, before so large an audience, the play was necessarily produced on a large scale. Yet even so I doubt if they had a mob as large as ours was this evening. This idea of a thundering mob and howling hundreds is pretty much of a modern thing after all".

Then, after an unfortunate question in which the mob was referred to as the chorus, Sir John declared quite vehemently,

"Whatever may be the case in a modern musical comedy, in a Greek play, the chorus and the mob are entirely separate. The chorus is a thing apart. It is composed of 15 actors with a leader in the center and seven members on either side. The members of the chorus are about the most highly trained actors in the entire cast, and they fulfill an important part in the dialogue and in the movement of the play.

Original Greek Chorus Imitated

"In most modern revivals of Greek plays, the chorus has merely stood and chanted with perhaps slight swaying motion. In my chorus, however, we have developed rythmical dance movements, which I believe approximate very closely those used by the original Greek choruses. It took a long time to evolve these dance movements. My son had to spend several weeks in the British Museum studying the figures on the Grecian vases, before at last he was able to obtain a practical conception of the original dances."

When asked whether or not he thought that drama had developed since the time of Sophocles, Sir John turned in his seat and declared.

"We have never gotten beyond Greek drama. I have played in modern plays and Shakespearian plays and Greek plays, and I consider that the Greek drama is at the summit, the very apex of dramatic art.

"You can't go one better than 'Oedepus Rex'", he said in a sudden burst of enthusiasm. "It is damn good melodrama. People think that there is something learned and scholastic about it. But it's not. It's the sort of play that any one can enjoy. It has rapid action and gripping dramatic interest. And that's why I'm giving this production,--to show that a great classic play can be enjoyed. I don't want just the highly educated to come to this play; I want the great public,--the man in the street. It has its appeal not only to the boxes but to what we call in England the pits and galleries. 'Oedipus Rex' is the greatest play ever written,--and, incidentally it has in it the greatest part.

"Yes,--even greater than Hamlet, although it is very difficult to compare the two. It depends very much on the temperament of the actor. My own tends toward the Greek drama. The character of Hamlet is greater in scope than that of Oedipus; its philosophy is more profound and infinitely more intricate. The character of Oedipus is less complicated, less subtle. It is simple and straightforward, and for that very reason Sophocles has made it more impressive in the vastness of its emotions."

With that, Sir John, who had discarded his kingly robes for a more conventional frock coat, slipped on an overcoat of large black and white checks, pulled a cloth cap down over his eyes, and walked towards the stage entrance.