Los Angeles daily herald., 1890-02-16
SUNDAY. FEBRUARY 1e, 1890.
wanted-Plays and Players.

Wanted-Plays and Players.
1t does not need much penetration to
see that the stage in our days is under.
going great change, that it ia in q
transition period radical in its nature.
Spasmodic efforts are made from time
to time to revive an interest in Shake
spere, but they come to nothing, for the
most part. Those who only see as far
as the surface think the fault is in
Shakespeare, that the man who has been
supposed to be of all times, to have re-
dected universal human nature, was, af-
ter all, only the man of period and that
this period ia past. That view is wrong.
Shakespers is of all time, and belongs
as common heritage to all men. He
stands with David, the sweet psalmist
of Israel, with Homer, of the Greeks,
with Dante, of the Middle Ages, who
were all men Of all ages and of all races.
They all belong to humanity forever.
The temple on Mount Zion has been
laid low and no voice OF praise ever
echoes through its crumbling ruins; but
the songs of the Poet King have lost
none of their freshness, none of their
power over the human heart. The
temples of Zsus and Ares ara laid as low
as that of Jehovah, and the creed that
taught of their existence even has been
forgotten; but the fiery fervor of the
blind poets lines still stirs the blood of
human hearts in many lands where
only few scholars know word of the
grand language that flowed in such
power from the pen of Homer.
Times have changed and men have
changed in them since Dante penned the
bitter irony of the ''Divina Comedia, 4"
but still his words move the human mind
as if they were written yesterday. Times
have not 30 changed, nor the essential
elements of human nature changed 80 as
to dull the feelings to the meaning of the
great Italians song. And while we may
live in many ways different from the
manners of men in the days when the
Tudors ruled over England, yet the phil
osophic indecision of Hamlet" and the
fatal ambition of Macbeth" find ready |
echo in the hearts of men in all stations
of life.
The failure of Shakesperean seasons
will never be because of the lack OF |
power in Lear and Otheuo to touch the
human heart. The sweetness of ''Des.
demona's" devotion, and of "Ophelia's"
filial love will delight us as long as the
perfume of spring violets is pleas.
ing to mems senses. They are
things that cannot change, they
are as immortal as love itself, or as the
ties that bind the child to the parent.
If the characters are truly and worthily |
interpreted they will appeal with irresis-
tible power to the human heart, and will |
draw forth strong response from all |
beholders.
But it is not Shakespeare that fails in
these days of ours. While the divine
William stands alone in the solitsrv
grandeur of his genius like the midday
sun in the heavens, there are numbers of
lower lights in this intellectual constella.
ton of the great playwrights whose
works are as neglected on the stage of
today as are those of the "Bard of Avon"
There are reasons why the productions
of Wycherly, Vanbrugh and Congreve
should not be played as they were writ
ten, there are still stronger reasons why
those of Mrs. Aphra Behn should not be
played at all. But there are no good
reasons why Oliver Goldsmith's charm
ing play. She Stops to Conquer, or Rich
ard Brinsley Sheridan's School for Scan.
dal or The Rirals should not grace the
boards of the modern stage. That is,
there is only the same reasons for
their nonproduction, or for their
failure when produced that apply
to Shakespere's plays. They are
not often undertaken for the reason that
they require more perfect mastery of the
command.
There is the whole secret in nutshell.
The age is one of low grade of medi-
ocrity in players and in playwrights. A
few years ago reporter on Nsw York
daily wrote little comedy which he
called The Woman Hoter. Mr.. Roland
Reed, who played it here few wee ks ago,
is said to have offered Bronson Howard
author of The Henrietta and The Shenon
doah, no less than $4,000 for as good
play. IT such a play is worth that
much money, good plays are scarce.
And they are scarce. Not long ago an.
other newspaper reporter, this time a
Boston man, quit his profession and
went to work making farce comedies.
MIR. Hoyt has flooded the country with
Brass Monkeys and Holes in the Ground,
and filed his pockets from the profits of
producing them. The age is barren of
genius when such plays are our best
achievements. The same is true
of musical productions. There are
A Trip to africa, Columbus, The Pearl
of Pekin and even Pinafore and Patience,
and in the whole catalogue of their kind
there Is not really good thing. Libretto
and score are both mediocrity of low
order.
But if a really good play were writ |
ten it would be difficult to get COM
pany together competent to produce it.
There are but few people of talent going |
-. tho 6oo~1c Lrk ..--L - r~ocIa o~o