Los Angeles herald., 1905-10-14
WINTER SCORES
|BSEN' s DRAMAS
CRITIC SAYS FAD Is MOST
DEPLORABLE
Asserts Playwright Introduces objec.
tonabIe Subject-knoWledge ln-
parted by These Plays Is
Injurious

eff your grandfather ever ate a
pickle you undoubtedly will get into
one"
This, says William Winter, the emf
nent dramatic critic, is the assertion
of the Ibsen drama.
Since the Ibsen craze has taken pos
session of the people of Los Angeles
there has been much discussion on the
subject of whether or not 1t is moral
influence for good.
William Winter, the young old man,
who for half a century has been iden-
titled with the greatest men and women
the theatrical world has known, has not
a good word to say for Ibsen or the
other writer's of his class.
He was seated in a comfortable arm
chair at the Stillson home on Angeleno
Heights when a reporter called yes
terday afternoon. He was resting after
an address given before the Friday
Morning club on 1.-THE Theater and The
Public" For an hour and forty min
utes he held the audience of women,
who crowded the club house, by his
wonderful voice and even more wonder
full messages.
"You want to know what think of
as to the reporter. Then he sat up
and his eyes prepared the way for
what came next.
"The detestable drama of Ibsen and
his sheeplike imitators is entirely per-
nicious on the public mind" he de-
clared. "It deals with a subject of
physical disease and moral and physical
consequences proceeding therefrom, and
such things should be left to doctors.
"The public does not or should not
go to the theater to hear of liver
trouble, softening of the brain or tuber-
culosls, or any of their hereditary con-
sequences.
Ibsen Fad DepIorabIe
"The movement to produce the Ibsen
plays in Los Angeles or in any other
place Is deplorable and bad because
1t introduces an Objectionable and OBJ
noxious subject, to the knowledge of
young people.
"The whole knowledge impaired by
Ibsen's plays and all other plays of
the kind is not only unnecessary but
injurious.
''It is wrong to introduce upon the
stage a vile subject and to try to justify
its production by saying that 1t teaches
good moral lesson.
"Such dramas call relation, social
problem which is not social problem
but a personal infamy
"The public should be made to want
beauty and not deformity."
"Do you think then, Mr.. Winter
that the stage has become hopelessly
degraded?" asked the reporter.
mot at ALL The drama is still an
art and there is nothing hopeless about
it,"
When Mrs. Ernest K. Foster of the
Friday Morning club introduced the
author, poet, lecturer and dramatic
critic to the members of the club, she
1t. Ifnr, Int nf
New York, Los Angeles and Shake
speares ENGLAND. Henceforth he will
also be known for part of each year as
an Angeleno.
1t is doubtful if any other man
of his seventy years could have deliv-
cred in so vigorous and stirring a man
ner an address of such length and re-
quiring such mental and physical effort
1T is certain no other man could have
written it.
The subject of the discourse was the
relation Of the theater and the public
and the duty Of the newspaper to both
the public and the theater
Talks of Evil Influences
Mr.. Winter devoted some time to an
exposition of the evil influences which
exist in American society, and which
he says are fostered by fiction of erotic
delirium of sentimental rubbish.
Mr.. Winter also gave an analysis of
Ibsen's work, and with him he classed
also Pinero, Shaw, Maeterlinck and
"that dire charlatan," Gabrielle dan
nunzio.
The speaker did not hesitate to con-
denim the haste, the strife and the un-
rest of the present, and advised against |
into the hands of the mob, |
the Nheater or any other institution |