Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/139

 lingering in the reluctance of a final farewell. The effect is not merely to enhance the realism and deepen the interest, but also to make the whole audience participate in the action of the drama, and to enable accessory incidents to be developed simultaneously with the unfolding of the central plot. A similar extension of dramatic capabilities results from the choragic adjunct. On the stage of the Occident, dialogue, monologue, or a "situation" is always necessary. That vast domain of every-day life where the lips are silent, though the mental preludes or consequences of important events are in full progress, cannot be shown without violating truth. The performer is obliged to think aloud, even though breathless silence be prescribed by all the probabilities of the scene. He has to interrupt the action of the plot in order to take the audience into his confidence; in order to unveil sentiments which, did they really control his acts, would never tolerate such interruptions. The Japanese method does not compel speech to play that exaggerated and unnatural part in the drama of life. Monologues are not sanctioned unless the situation is such as to evoke them naturally. Sometimes a great part of a scene takes place without any interchange of words or any use of speech by the actors. They confine themselves to depicting moods or performing acts which the choragic reciter explains. The pantomime is admirable; occasionally a little exag-