140. Gabrielle Rèjane

Guest performance at the Lessing Theater, Berlin

I was only able to see this great artist in a few roles due to urgent duties. But they were enough for me to get the impression that Gabrielle Réjane is an actress who has achieved what she can be through her personality to a degree that cannot be imagined higher. The actor's genius is given direction and limits to his art by his means. If genius is sufficient to make of itself, of the sum of its means, that which is incapable of increase, then it is a perfect artist. And Réjane is a perfect artist in this sense. It is inconceivable that Gilbere ("Frou-Frou") can be better portrayed if she is played by Réjane. Anyone who accepts the personal qualities of the actress as a given can only demand of her a Gilbere that he must call perfect. And this is what she plays. Her genius never falls short of her means. The emotions to which the artist can carry the audience away, I have seen best in her Helene Ardan in Donnay's latest play. This sensitive passion for love in its intimate truth, which must drive a warm breath through the spectator's whole body, is portrayed by Réjane in an unsurpassable manner. She is a strong personality with a perfect capacity for sensitivity; and she portrays the personality that is in her mind's eye in such a way that everything she does seems natural. With unparalleled ease she expresses what she has grasped of the person she embodies. And this lightness is the true characteristic of the art of the great style.