The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-01-22
YOU MEYER CAN TELL B. SHAW
National DRAWS AND DfiB0LI-
CALLY CLEI ER RAW RiIfNG.
a Wit Who Posed as Philosopher ami Is
Not Ntthunt ~ nor Nate in Hls oMh
Country--The Decadencc n the Drama
apda New suit 81 Clothes It and'dh.' ,

PERHAPS the most allming'y indeter-
inmate cmes tior with regard 10 that most
alluriugly Understandable Of plsyWright-.
Bernard SHAW is what might have necn
made OF him If. instead of Being sport
If Irish genius half accliuw'ed in London,
he had had The good fortune 90 write tor a
public that respected him. and-here j.
the Fticker-that be respected We have
all been told that the truly great and I'M
portant creators in art are the products 81
their own place and time-tha' IN leadlng
it they are led by II II there is any dohO'
Of This it is only because It has been 80 oiteh
asserted a. fact.
That Shaw is worthy ~ n great ana
enlightened public i, now to he 80 longer
doubted The success Of ''aniiha, rtal
As it WAS from the outset, WIS m Soiuc part
"a we all know factitions he result ~ the
pagging Of t1r tongues OF iaddls'S ana
counter faddists. II vas at least an open
question whether the shaw boom vas not q
mere bubble that a. the first touch ut q nara
bottom Of ordinary theatrical conditions
would burst The success OF y OH Never Can
Tell has laid an such fears Tn" onthiisi-
asn of the first night audience was un-
doubted. and the succeeding performance
according 70 report have gone a. We !.
The matinee Of last Wednesday as / nad
occasion 10 witness. was crowded. ana
vent on with all the marks Of real amuSe-
ment and enthusiasm.
On the Continent meanwhile, there has
been an even greater interest IN Sha"
There. as here. candida was the gentle
pioneer and caused much va ing Of pros
and cons. The brilliant fyrotcohn'c> of
The Man Of Destiny fs'ieu ont N the
rocket-trough; ia The Devils pisciTl ne.
produced by Alfred Hahn at the Der
liner Theater and Arms and the Nan.
produced by Paul Lindau At the DentSches
rheater. were Immediately and vastly sue
cessful-won over even h 80 who were uu-
convinced by Candida" and are already
passing on TO the other repertory theatres
Of Germany have heard It stated though
I cannot now verify the statement. that
the Shaw boom ha. even invaded Vienna
and St = tersburg Certain u u that
while those preeuinently popular English
playw1ights Pinero and Jones arc IN
known on the Continent. or known only TO
he neglected Shaw j. welcomed "a tho rep
resentative OF the modern British school,
mis- only ri,al-and this poin, is critical
being Oscar Wilde whose Lady Ninder-
nare's Fan" is greatly admired and whose
-salome' has long passed is hundredth
performance in repertory
How different from all this is shaw'-
fate IN London That he hoped 10 be seen
in the public theatres he himself has left US
no doubt. Has hc not in His pretacr- told
us how he cast his earlier taud better
plays in the conventional forms Of farce and
melodrama' There are points ia which
Candida and Tho Devils Disciple bark
back 10 methods and even 20 tricks Of the
stage which, he tells us. autcdate the young
folk who claim him as brilliant iunoyatof.
And every effort aeems 10 have been made
TO get the plays actually staged. The oh
tuscness of public and managers has heen
little short ii miraculous Wuiis mediocre
and bad plavz we're succeeding on all SIDES.
Arms and the Man. put on by m angel,
ran TO very slim audiences. Forbes Rob
ertson did The Devils Disciple to the vast
delight of-the few. In America Mans field
did both plays With mediocre success and
dropped them from mis- reperJorv Sir
Charles Wyndham refused Candida, AS
he himself lately ntimated in an interview,
for the politely 7peciou- managerial reason
that 1t was twenty years ahead Of ~ time
It may be questioned whether Sir Charles
was not further behind his time than Can
dida7 was ahead OF It But there can be no
doubt that the English public was not, and
perhaps is not yet ready for shaw.
] shall never forget an attempt that was
made in 1896 to run Arms and the Man
in the English provinces. oxford. where
I saw it. u perhaps not typically provincial
though in the matter OF Shaw + might quail
ify in its ancient capacity a. the home
Of lost causes and impossible Royalties.
The first act. with it, intense suspense
had a fighting chance With house half full
Of undergraduates But the cause was
preiudiced by the fact that the under
graduates we're themselves in about the
same state OF REPETITION as the house. When
BMalschh crawled IN az the window The
voice Of tawnee in the gallery cried ont
10 Rama Got under the bed That de-
ci1ed the fate Of the play. Ia tho second
act redheadcd spnr.er OF International
.f-uress. cs-pital fellow 90 i1s rrln 81
Jordan. got ND in the middle of the third
row, faced ,pN audioucr ond vomiting nj,
thumb over his shoulder the actress who
played Louku said, DO you know rather
ike ihat girl II was the coup dc grace
/ vent again the second night. Tor il was he
first I had ever heard ~ Shaw, and the
actor who played BIuufschh one Drink
water. if | remember. was capital. he
house wac empty.
In 1897 Cyril Maude and Frederick Har-
rison accepted You Never tan Tell FOR
,..-.,,.,, ., che J,,-,,t.r Lea .u,i lro,,rb In