The Evening critic., 1885-03-09
DRAMATIC IMPRoRAnILIrIEs.
A chat win the Author of "vicfor
DurnnO',

inc DTllllanb young pltyWIlBuu III u IcUcuV
conversation with CRITIC representative,
in that most interesting of fields-tho
drama. "There is no more reason" he
continued, "why the cheap aud tawdry
should obtain upon the stage any more
than that cheap Autographs should find
place in your picture gallery or trashy
books in your library. A good play will
remain on the stage for eight or ten years.
Think of the influence it must have. 1t
will have been witnessed by at least 25O,.
GOO persons in a season. In four years a
million persons will have seen it, play
is more than picture. Aud how many
persons Will spend two hours 10 front of
picture, studying it2 Yet the artist puts
his most conscientious work into his pic
ture, at which each person is to gaze but
few moments. How much more conscientious
should tho playwright be whose work is to
DO studied moro than two hours by each one
who secs It,. A good play is more than
picture. 1t is a clinic of psychological
anatomy; it is moral lecture, homily
stirring grafton, poem, in ono. 1t has
great educating power, and this power
should be rightly controlled.
The tendency at the present time"
he continued, is to produce playS with
theatrical effects. There can be nothing
really new in the subject and but little
In tho material of play. All that
can be done Is to work over old
material. Recognizing this lack of sub
jects, some playwrights endeavor to arouse
the interest of their audiences by pro-
ducing theatrical effects but the audience
thranOh fhapn Whom "a mi Ia
thrown out of window, for instance, the
audience knows that he is going to alight
upon a mattress, or when two men engage
in sword contest and one of Thorn Is ruu
| through the body the audience Is plainly
aware that the sword passed under the
| alleged victims arm, and so with any num-
Der Of the theatrical tricks. If these are
subservient to the dramatic situation, they
are pardonable, but play whose only in
terest lies in these shallow devices is stale,
flat and unprofitable.'
you do not believe in trickery, Mr.. Carle-
ton ?"
Decidedly not not on the stage auy
moro than anywhere else. On the stage
nature should DO adhered to. You will
not find any of this clap.trap in any of
those fiue old English plays which have
held their place for years aud will al
ways be standard pieces. No such trckery
in The School for Scandal The Rivals
or She Stops to Conquer Nature is
rigidly followed and this is what makes
them interesting. Now while theatrical
effects are to be deplored, dramatic Of
fects and situations are perfectly legiti-
mate. For they are natural. If they are
not natural they are weak. If play has
no dramatic situations it cannot possess
much of interest"
| "You were remarking about the scarcity
| of subjects with which playwright can
deal"
Eyes; there are really only three pas
siops which can BIO utilized-love, avarice
and ambition, in their varying branches.
They are as the primary colors in
the rainbow. And play to be great
must deal with one or more of these pas
sions. You cannot think of great play
in which they are not used. If love itself
is not employed, then jealousy, of which
love is the insepsrablo companion, is util-
lied to revolve tho play on. Now these
three passions have been employed from
time immemorial. by dramatic writers.
They have rung almost every possible
change upon them and yet they can be en-
ployed to-day by the conscientious play
wright without laying himself open to the
charge of plagiarism. The subjects are old,
but so are the passions. They have ex-
listed since man came into the world. They
exist in every man and arc the leading mo-
tives of his life. To is quite natural then
that any play to interest him must deal
with these passions. E
"Now, the skill Of the playwright" Mr..
Carleton resumed, knocking the ashes from
his cigarette and settling himself into a
more comfortable attitude in his easy chair,
"comes in when he attempts to treat this
old subject In new way. AS soon as ieal-
Ousy Is introduced at once everyone thinks Of
'Othello;' but it is not plagiarism to employ
Il.
writer must oppose his characters in an
original way. Now, in regard to Victor
Durand' | know very well that the con-
viction OF man on cirCumstantial evil
dence is as old as the hills, and l also know
that the devotion of a wife to her husband
charged with an awful crime, is just as old,
"The only thing to be done was to make
new arrangement. For this some of the
critics have said that the play was I'M
probable. / don't think that any of them
said that plagiarized, although believe
one or two limited that something Of tho
| same kind was to be found in 'Gaboreau.
never read 'Gaboreau.' Mr. Winter made
the most Just criticism when he said that
although the arrangement was improbable
writer had the right TO make au i'm
probable plot provided he carried it out in
probable manner It's just this way
Given n man and a woman in a certain
situation, then let the events follow logi.
cally. II you refuse TO grant the situation
then Of course you reject the entire play.
"But," he continued, with fresh energy
only the improbable is interesting Sup
pose had made Victor Durand' probable
Suppose had made Henri FaraH confess to
his wife that he had been imprisoned
but unjustly; that he was a galley
slave with brand on his brow
She would have believed in his in
nocence, and when he came TO be accused
she would have defended him and asserted
his innocence in the most probable way
The audience would have known from the
first that he had been wrongfully accused
and when the curtain fell, would have gone
away impressed with having seen the
weakest play Of the season. Now, all tha
would have been very probable, but wholly
uninteresting. But suppose instead hat
this same man, the victim of oircumstantia
evidence, conceal all knowledge Of his dis
grace from his wife, hide from her the fac
that he was living under an assumed name
Suppose when at last he was confronted
by his accusers he had shrunk back il
shame, overwhelmed by his exposure
then, if his wife with all the appearance
against him, had determined to believI
him. then there would have been {
dramatic situation, The audience would
be left in doubt as TO the mans guilt o
innocence, and the interest would BIO sus
tanned until the denouement. No. Their
must be some improbability in the play
The greatest and the most interesting o
1 ,.ln. l.. 4