"Playing Shakespeare Like Bathing in the Ocean," Hampden Says, Bemoaning Fact Best Authors Are Going Into Cinema

"The eternal question with me," said Walter Hampden, who appeared last week in "Cyrano de Bergerac" at the Boston Opera House, "is what to do next. After that I ask myself 'How much will it cost?' and then, 'Will they come to see it?'

"I have played principally the romantic drama," the actor continued, "though I did do Ibsen and his contemporaries some time ago. I find the modern theatre very creative, it is not decadent What I am troubled about is the opposition offered to the legitimate stage by the talking pictures.

"The legitimate theatres will not disappear, but they will become very sparse. With the best authors and actors being drawn into the moving picture field by the compensation available, and with the 'Listerine' advertising propaganda and lower admission prices that the sound pictures offer, the stage is put in a difficult position. But this will achieve one thing: it will create such competition among the legitimate plays, that a natural weeding out process will take place."

Asked whether he tired of performing one role for so long a time as he has played Cyrano. Mr. Hampden replied, "Fortunately the 625 odd presentations of Rostand's play that I have acted in have not been in succession. They are actually spaced over six seasons, 250 being my record for consecutive performances of Cyrano, and then I was forced to interrupt that string because of an injury resulting from my fall from a balcony.

In response to a question regarding the other plays he has appeared in. Mr. Hampden said, "I gave almost 500 performances of 'Hamlet,' 600 of the 'Servant in the House,' and 360 of 'Caponsacchi,' 272 of which were consecutive. In the last analysis I prefer playing Shakespeare to any other writer, other dramatists have not the same terrific force that he has Acting Shakespeare is like bathing in the ocean."