The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-07-21


| edy. Tragedy kings and queens were
commanded to retire and comedy
emperors and expresses. took thei1
place. The change was wholesome one.
1t widened the scope of the dramatic art
| and satisfied the desires OF earnest lovers OF
| the drama, who could not believe that all
OF the drama was included in the tragic
| The advent in England of the "Comedle
Franchise tended to strengthen the desire
Tor legitimate comedy, and for the hrst
time the English managers were taught the
full value OF ensemble. The American
stage followed the English, and comedy
companies OF varying excellence presented
works of high order, but, as hap
pened in England so in America,
the success OF the legitimate comedy was
almost its destruction. Mushroom COM
panies presenting farce-comedies, comedy'
farces, comedies equestrian, buzz-saw com.
edles, and wild, weird, meaningless
attempts at realism threatened the legiti-
mate comedy. Lester Wallack gave the
American people legitimate comedy; so
do Augustin Daily, Palmer and the Froh-
mans. But the razzle-dazzle fraternity
eclipse in number the legitimate companies
as ten to one. Still the legitimate is not
| dead in England or America. In England
Henry Irving, Charles Calvert, J. l..
Toole, Lionel Brough, Charles Alexan-
der and many Others have held decency
to be as essential to the stage
l
States, Frederick Warde, Louis James,
! Augustin DAILY and Mansfield have pre-
served their love for the legitimate, and
| there are many indications of an early re-
| turn to pure comedy, favored with ro-
nance. French dramatists are taking
| large share of English and American pa
tronage. Sardou leads all other dramatists
of the French school, and probably OF any
| school, while Ohnet is a good third.
Recently leading London managers gave
their audiences Diplomacy" mBecket,'
,Ironmaster, 'HyPatia." "A Woman ..pS Of
S no importance t aroersy .T h Ranb Inc
S he" THE 5 Amazons,I walker. Lon.
dom" "Charley's Aunt" THE Artists
| Model" 1.-THE Passport" and The Shop
Girl" the two latter being the works OF
American authors. All these plays either
| have been or will be produced IN the
| United States.
| Ibsen is before the English world. He is
on trial with the odds against him. Al
| though not himself fully accepted there is
no doubt that he has influenced many OF
| the more recent dramatic works, notably,
| Pinero's "Second Mrs. Tanoueray,p and
there is no question that some OF H.. A.
| Jones best work owes much to the Nor
wegian poet. Ibsen's GA Dolls House."
and his "Hedda Gabler," are works de-
serving of long life, and Ibsen may, after
all. find an unqualified acceptance.
In the United States, Boxer, Henry Guy
Carleton, Bronson Howard and Barclay
Campbell have given excellent work to the
public. Clay Greene and Harry Dam take
honors in dramatic work.
There does not yet appear to be any
distinctive American school of acting nor
an American form OF drama, and Lon
don and Paris are too near to New
York to expect the establishment OF any
| thing purely American In dramatic
art. Indeed the idea of localizing art
| is, as it were, to attempt to nationalize
the sun. Whatever affects the drama in
England is likely to affect it in New York.
1t is possible, however, for an American
author to write purely American play on
an American subject, and though art itself
is universal its expression may have local
color. The author who can produce
| play like Alabama" by touch of the art
universal should not be satisfied until he
| has produced a work, not local In Its mo-
| tive, but permissibly local in its color.
| We turn naturally to the past, over
| which there is ever golden halo, for the
names of those who have distinguished the
| American stage. First (and always tirst)
| Edwin Booth, Forrest, Jefferson, McCul-
| Tough, the two Wallacks, Hackett, Sheri-
dan, Charlotte Cushman. Sophie Edwin,
Mrs. Sanderson, Mrs Bowers, Edwin
| dock, John Brougham, Mexican Buchanan,
| Bishop, Burton, the Chapmans, Bar
ton Hill, J. S. Clarke, Chanfrau,
| the Davenports, the Drews, Boucicault,
Florence, keene, Emily Melville, Ada
Isaacs Menken, Maggie Mitchell, William
| Robson, Crane, William Warren, Mrs.
| John Wood, Barney Williams, Harry
! Edwards, the Batemans, Julia Deane
| Hayne, the Popes, the Thornes.
| Frank Mayo, Eben Plymton, Rose
Eytinge Ben de Bar, Sol Smith Rus
Tnbr
son, Stephen Leach and John I. Raymond.
| All these are proper to the American stage
and with each name our loving thoughts
| linger as our eyes hnger while watching
the last rays of the setting sun. Many of
| them are across the stream, many are on
| the margin, but all have place In the
affections of the playGoers. OF the later
school which Includes Frederick Warde,
Louis James, Mansfield, James O'Neill Nat
| Goodwin, it would be invidious to speak,
! but we may assert that the drama is safe
in their hands.
The present condition of the drama is
| only satisfactory in so far as it promises an
early improvement. 1t seems quite clear
that the romantic drama is about to have
| its innings The American people are
| tired of the hodge-podge rubbish of the va
riety play, and while not objecting to the
vaudeville want something better than
mere horse play. They are also tired of
lasting sugar-coated sin. Sin belongs to
US; it is part of us and therefore
properly part of all dramatic conceptions
of an intense nature, but the alteration OF
sin, intellectually gilded,. is another thing.
Dress-suit plays, which do not illuminate
vice and make it viciously attractive by
the brilliancy of its witty setting, fail to
draw. The theater-goer of to-day acknowl-
edges the vicious welt in the web of life,
but he is no longer anxious to see it made
the sole material of the dramatic tapestry.
The reaction has set in, and the public say,
"Sin, if you must, but sin decently."
There is little prospect of the restoration
of the classic drama. Our people have
been taught to love color, and they will
find it in melodrama cleansed of its blood
curdling realism, and in a reproduction of
the romantic tinged with the classic.
The future of the drama cannot be pre-
dicted any more than the future of the
people, but there are many reasons for be-
1ieving that, in the drama of the future,
music will play a most important part.
The lyric drama has never been fairly
tested and it is not unlikely that there
will be direct "set" in the current