The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1901-10-13

Onera-house with Hamlet" '"The
Merchant of Venice the Alcazar
~ with 1.-The Tanning of the Shre|,
or the Tivoli with 'Tannhauser, "Otello'
"Mephisto" ?-Or should these leave the
masterpieces of the human heart and
brain to those wl.o alone can interpret
them in all their excellence and gloryE
Does it make for the betterment OF the
artistic moralities that the cheap theater
shall forever confine itself to the banaI'
the inane in dramatic art, because OF its
inability adequately to interpret It's Nigh
er forms of expression? Shall that lead
ing heavy of the demagogue cast-who
individually if impertinently, exists, how
ever-the workingman, be compelled to
take along with the other cheapnesses OF
his career the bad music and bad play. as
well as the bad singer and bad actor?
1t is easy for the dramatic purist to say
yes, to affirm sternly that no Shake
speare at all is better than a weak, IN
sufficient rendering of the great play
wright's work, and still further to insist
that no play is better than a bad play.
But the subject may not thus be lightly
dismissed. One of the inalienable rights
of humankind based on a universal in
stinct is the right to rational amusement,
the right to happiness in one or another
shape So intimate and vital is this need,
so imperious its qualification, so all-irn-
portant its bearings, that civilization
may Justly be measured by the degree IN
which it ministers to this single necessity.
1t is a right recognized by all Govern
ments alike more or less, and given ex-
preston to in such forms as free art
| galleries, parks, museums, subsidized
! tneaters, free concerts, public libraries,
and so on. and according to the kind and
| prevalence of these things, so is the de-
gree of civilization in the community.
| Now. and more's the pity, we have not
vet arrived in this country at the pitch
| theater, neither the player nor the play
| having yet attained the point of national
| respect that is demonstrated by the sub
! sidzing of the art. Until that time, that
may not be so far distant as it seems, the
| perennial problem of the cheap theater
will be with us, the good play with in
| different players or the bad play with
the same Indifferent players, and in spite
of possible mangling, distortion even,
and inevitable comparative unworth
.of the good plays Interpretation
in poor hands, the former policy
would nevertheless seem to be clear
gain. Half a loaf is better than
no bread and a bedimmed ideal better
| than no ideal; therefore is it for the ulti-
mate good of his own soul and ours that
the cheap player shall sometimes lay
|
| holy of HOLES itself, the Shakesperean
drama, and the Tivoli give us the very
| good four-bit 'Tannhauser'' that is sub
stitute for Mr.. Grau's magnifcence at 81
| a head.
Who shall say, for example, that the
| large audiences that have greeted Ham
| let" and 1.-The Merchant of Venice dur
ing the last two weeks at the Grand
| JoI1r
| off than they would have been had the
| company wasted its not superabundant
genius on "Sapho,' "A Brass Monkey or
Under Two Flags? Or, and this counts
out the not always available inspiration
of a leading man like Joseph Haworth,
| were not the Alcazar audiences that
"stood for two weeks of 1.-THE Tanning
of the Shrew,'' with Florence Roberts
cleverly shrewing it, Individually the ricn-
err for it than those who spent their time
and money at the same theater on the
pseudo-classic 'Ingomar," or the rancid
moralities of ''Sapho"?
A remarkable feature of the Hawortn
Shakespearean audiences has been the
large size of the gallery population, not
the accidental audience, but a crowd that
knew what it came for and applauded dis
creetly when it got it. 1t got, incidentally.
the best 10 cents worth that has been on
the theatrical bargain counter for MANY
months, a principal player like Mr.. Ha-
worth, whose conceptions of Shylock and
Hamlet are nobly intelligent, two casts
without absolute disaster and effective
settings for both plays. 1t got also two
performances that, though somewhat
shaky in outline and thin in color. were
yet sincere and reverent. and though otter
inadequate were never impertinent, nor
in any sense caricature of the authors
/ ion dad h.
beauty of atmosphere, largely inherent in