balcony filled with persons in evening dress whom I took to be
the opera singers. I picked out one massive dark lady as Alboni,
and wondered how soon she would stand up and sing. I was puzzled
by the fact that I was made to sit with my back to the singers
instead of facing them. When the curtain went up, my astonishment
and delight were unbounded.



The Soldier at the Theatre Front

In 1915, I saw in the theatres men in khaki in just the same
predicament. To everyone who had my clue to their state of mind
it was evident that they had never been in a theatre before and
did not know what it was. At one of our great variety theatres I
sat beside a young officer, not at all a rough specimen, who,
even when the curtain rose and enlightened him as to the place
where he had to look for his entertainment, found the dramatic
part of it utterly incomprehensible. He did not know how to play
his part of the game. He could understand the people on the stage
singing and dancing and performing gymnastic feats. He not only
understood but intensely enjoyed an artist who imitated cocks
crowing and pigs squeaking. But the people who pretended that
they were somebody else, and that the painted picture behind them
was real, bewildered him. In his presence I realized how very
sophisticated the natural man has to become before the
conventions of the theatre can be easily acceptable, or the
purpose of the drama obvious to him.

Well, from the moment when the routine of leave for our soldiers