The Same Only Different

by Margaret Webster. Knopf, $7.95. The history of her own family is Margaret Webster’s good excuse for writing what amounts to a history of British theater since 1818, when the first Ben Webster came dancing out of Bath to speak the first line uttered on the stage of the new Coburg Theater, later and better known as the Old Vic. The book is utterly delightful—full of odd backstage information, knowledgeable comment on acting and directing (Miss Webster has done both), and re-creations of long-gone performers and playwrights. Perhaps because she regrets the ephemeral quality inherent in stage work, perhaps because she secretly thinks of her subjects as though she were directing an impersonation of them, Miss Webster is a wizard at describing players as both players and people. Henry Irving, Ellen Terry, Mrs. Pat Campbell, all the Barrymores, and a host of other actors whirl vividly through her pages. There is no name-dropping involved. Every one of these personages provides some item of information about the theater. Most of them wrote deliciously funny letters.