The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-07-13
STAGE LAND.

Honolulu is just closing theatre
cal season. To many people the stage
is a synonym for a snare and all kinds
OF wickedness. Fortunately that class
IS growing less and less every day. To
others the stage is a sure means OF
education and uplifting. After all the
stage and the book are very much the
same. The latter can do infinite good
and it can do infinite harm, or it can
do neither and merely soothe an idle
hour.
Well conducted, the stage undoubted-
" has an immense influence. 1t has
not the influence upon us that it had
among the Greeks, to whom the theater
was in a measure religion. 1t has
not the influence upon us that it has
had sometimes in France, where it has
turned ministries from power With
our race the influence of the stage is
sociological 1t may do good, socially.
1t may do harm, socially.
The influence of such a company as
Mr. Nell has brought to the Islands
cannot but be for good. 1t is refining,
elevating and artistic. We admire and
are improved by contemplating
beautiful picture, it may be Rafaels
Madonna" Corregios "Ecce Homo"
Frith's Derby Day." Millet's Eve Of
Bartholomew or Hogarth's set of the
''Rake's Progress" On the stage we
have the picture touched to life. 1t is
not one scene but a continued series Of
scenes which are set before us.
A company such as has been playing
in Honolulu recently has a distinct
effect upon the community. 1t strives,
of course, to cater to the public taste,
but at the same time it strives to lead
the public taste. It's aim is high one.
The desire of the public in the mass is
to be amused, and a very large sec
ton of it is amused with coarse wit
and risque illusions. But if some
thing really good is offered to it the
public readily responds, and is quick to
appreciate the elevating influence
which is acting upon it.
After all the philosopher must take
the theater seriously. The theater is in
a great measure the guide to the moral
standing of the people. Read Shake
speare and you learn the dignity and
the brilliant ideals of the Elizabethan
age. Read Wycherly and COngreve
and you very quickly see decadence Of
manners, the hippancy and immortality
of the time of Charles II. Take Mo-
liere from your shelf and you have the
biting sarcasm of an age that knew it
was on the downward path and could
laugh at it's own moral decadence.
Turn to Halerys librettos to which
Offenbach supplied the music and you
have picture of society dancing while
Rome is burning, a wild bacchanal
rOut, which the Third Empire was Go
far back and Alcestis shows us how
the Greek intellect viewed moral ques-
tions. Still further back and study the
book Of Job-for that production was
a Play, IS much as any of the most
a problem play at that-and you get
the reflex of the mind of a time which
history knows not. Come nearer and
get some glimpse of the miracle plays.
These show the thought of the middle
ages. One of them has survived to the
present time and is even this month
being presented at Oberammergau,
whittier all the world is flocking now.
The above paragraph is a very hasty
view of a great subject, but it tells
enough to show that the stage ought
to be taken far more seriously than it
is. Like all great forces it is capable
of infinite good, and it is capable of
infinite evil. Womanhood, the ruler of
the earth, has like power She can
be, and is the guiding star of humani-
ty. She is the emblem of all that is
holy and pure in the world, and gives
us our standard for the next. But how
degraded she can be. How she can
wreck the grandest and most useful of
lives and drag them down into an abyss
of shame and other dishonor.
To those who strive to elevate the
stage, who strive to keep it to it's high
ideals, all credit and honor is due, and
Honolulu owes ever a debt of gratitude
to any one who shows her that those
high ideals remain in stage land.
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