The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1900-03-17
The New Plays by Irish Writers
a Dramatic Success.
4 REVIVAL Of CELTIC SENTIMENT
Tho "lrish Literary Theater" is
a National Triumph.

! The second season of the Irish Lit
erary theater' has just closed and the
result has been national as we'll as
personal and artistic triumph, says
the Dublin correspondent OF the Chi
cago Chronicle. Last May the venture
was first made to give the Irish people
drama that would be distinctly ma
tional and racy Of the soil and inter
pretive OF their history, traditions and
aspirations. At the time it was re-
garded as a noteworthy fact that in
Dublin should be attempted almost
the first earnest efforts in these
days to lift the stage to high intel
lectual plane and give it purely lite
rary flavor. OF course, the movement
was not in response to any widely cx-
pressed popular demand, for the public
taste here, as elsewhere, has been vi
tiated by so-called dramas from Lon
don and New York which appeal to
the senses and the passions rather than
to the mind and imagination. The Gre
ators and promoters of this literary
theater had little thought OF gaudy
and elaborate stage effects and there
fore the costumcr and stage car
penter were not main factors in
the progress of the plays. III"
said w. B, Yeats, the chief in
spircr OF this new movement, they
had elaborate scenery distracling the
eyes OF the audience it would not leave
the vocation OF the poet free, for no.
thing would be left for the Imagination
The fact has been lost sight OF that
the aim OF the drama was action we'd
dcd to fit majestic words We must
learn to have words restored 10 their
old sovereignty If we are to have good
drama and must learn to listen to the
words OF the actor rather than look at
the scenery. We hope in time to be
able to spread abroad enthusiasm for
Irish legend and the great figures OF
Irish myth.
In the leaning upon the national
feeling OF the country they were doing
what the drama had done in the only
European country where there was a
drama at once intellectual and popular
Norway where the fight with cosmo
politan ideals had been begun some
half century ago, and where national
life had been made the basis OF an ad
mirable literature"
In 1899 two plays we're preserted, the
Countess Ca,hIeen," by W. B. Yeats.
and "Thc Heather Field" by Edward
Martyr. Both met with success and
their literary merits were so pro-
nounccd that the plays have been trans
lated into German and other Ian
guagcs. To avoid as much expense as
possible they were played at the An
ticnt concert rooms, where elaborate
staging, if desired, was impossible.
The various parts were taken by ex-
pcricnccd and sympathetic players and
the audiences were representative OF
the best and most cultured classes OF
the city. Their verdict made the thea
ter no longer an experiment.: it is now
Il fixed institution in our literature and
national life, and in time, it is hoped.
its seasons will include most of the
year instead Of single week. This
venture OF few scholars, successful
beyond expectation, is one OF the
best signs OF the times, for it proves
that the mind OF Ireland is broadening
and reaching upward, and that alien
rule and repression can no longer en-
force intellectual stagnation. 1t is one
OF the most cheering and helpful facts
in connection with the language and
literature revival which has shown
such extraordinary progress and viril-
ity during the past few years. 1t is a
revival which promises new era, and
the beginning OF state Of things in
which reconstruction and regeneration
OF the country will be the end There
is no fear that the purely political
ideals OF the old land will even slum-
Der; they have survived the agonics
of crucifxion through the centuries;
and backed up as this undying faith in
nationhood now is by drama appeal
ing to the spirit rather than the senses
by the Irish Literary society, the mother
of the new theater; by the Gaelic
league, which is making the grand old
tongue again living language, and by