The morning news., 1899-11-19

Critics may laugh at such efforts and
managers may mourn over them, but they
are not vain. No honest effort to advance
art and to proclaim truth is ever van.
Something remains, when the names of the
men who may have been associated with
the efforts have gone out of our memories.
Others, in whose minds seed has been
sown, viii renew The fight; perhaps sue
cessfully.
My masters the world moves.
Recently another onslaught on the con-
ventionalties and the untruths that cleaye
to our stage has been made in New York
Mr.. Zangwin (aided, it is but fair TO
add by Mr.. James A. Herne. piopeer of
the true drama in America), has intro
duced US TO his dramatized Children OF
the Ghetto"
Greater than all these, deeper than
John Gabriel BoTkman," stranger and
finer than "El Gran Galeoto," more beau
tiful and infinitely more significant than
"Cyrano' q write this feelingly and blush
not for my brazenness) is a play which
Il. II. Sothern has promised to produce
(experlmentaly, at leasD, at Days. ''The
Sunken Bell" work by Gerhart Haupt-
mann, author of "Hannele," and of THE
Weavers," the one truly great play thus
far given the stage on the subject of labor
and capital.
What is "The sunken Bell?" And who
is this Hauptmann?
As 30 Hauptmann. He Is poet, one of
the few poets who in our day have been
blessed with the dramatic spirit. In Ger
many he has, since the production of his
first work (''Before Sunrise") by the Freie
Buehne (or Independent Theater) in Ber-
lin, been recognized as the head of the
new realistic movement. He Is a young
man still-hardly older than Rostand. And
his range is far wider, while his insight
into the soul of humanity is far more
profound, that Rostand is or is ever likely
to be. In THE Weavers' he produced
an epic of misery, and, In so doing, evolv-
ed a new stage technique. Imagine a
drama without a hero, without a hero
inc, without a love interest. The People
itself, with its woe and it's dull, hopeless
yearnings for happiness substituted for
the sweethearts and the villains of con-
vention. And the effect? Prodigious
Heart-shaklng.
Now for THE Sunken Bell" 1t is the an
t.thesis of 1.-THE Weavers." A poetic trag-
edy-or, as the author has named IT., a
fairy play" But fairy play, such as a
young Goethe might have conceived; a
human tragedy, dressed in the form of a
dramatic alegory, with fantasy not un-
worthy of "A Midsummer Nights Dream"
or Tempest to brighten it, and a moral
that recalls in turn "Prometheus' and
Faust" and the story of Icarus.
THE hero-an ideaiist. dreaming Of
marvellous peal of bells that shall ring
a new gospel of Joy and light and free-
dom through the world The heroine-an
elf, a child of impulse, symboizing ma
ture. There is a victim, too, a hapless
wife, who browns herself. And there are
Williams (of queer kdnd3 woodsprite and
watersprlte. The play is a poetic para
BILE.
We may see other dramas, strange and
perhaps, to some, bewildering, this sea-
son.
Mr. Blair, an actor who attracted IA
vorable attention by the admirable work
he did two years ego in what was known
as the Criterion Independent Theater pro-
duction of "El Gran Galeoto" announces
that he win present in New York a series
of modern plays--flve or six of them.
"Gaieoto" itself is among the number
Echegaray wrote 1t as a lesson in charity
and his chief character (as Ernesto the
hero, tells us) does not appear on the
stage. For that character is really Calum-
ny.
The Little Eyolf'' of Ibsen (whereof the
tendency may seem inspired by Tolstoi's
"Kreutzer Sonata'O and a remarkably
strong drama by Richard Voss, entitled
Guilty" are also on the list.
One other play promised by Mr. Blair
may be mentioned. 'The Heather Field"
of Mr.. Edward Martyr. Much has been
less sombre and "repellant" than some
dramas of the Norwegian MASTERY by Mr..
William Archer and Mr.. George Moore.
II was originally presented in London this
year by the Irish Literary Theater The
subject and the author both are Irish.
And the hero is again a dreaming ideahst.
What reception will these works meet
at the hands of the public to which they
viii appeal?
That Is for the future to decide. But
am hopeful.
They will be sneered at-every one of
them-of course. They may not please.
But they will hardly meet Indifference.
The list of patrons published by MIR. Blair
1T includes such representative names as
w. D. Howels, Sir Henry Irving. Bron-
son Howard e. II. Sothern, George Van
derbli. George Gould, Charles Frohman.
Israel Zangwill and Recorder Goff-should
assure them at least courtesy.
And these plays viii be seen in Boston
perhaps also in Philadelphia.
There is hope for the true drama in
America. Charles Henry Meltzer.
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