The sun., 1908-04-19

80 many peOplef though they long ago ceased
10 be a novelty. Il may well be ssked in all
seriousness what will be the result when
! they are combined with speech by talking
machine and depict not hapha zard farce,
but ordered drama That will give them a
charm Of novelty again, a new lease OF life.
! II they have already turned vaudeville out
Of the Union Square Theatre, are they des-
! tined TO convert the Empire into home for
canned drama aud solve the vexed problem
Of who shall direct the New Theatre In Gem
traF Park West2 And il we are to have
canned drama. why not canned opera, with
Oscar Hammcrstein as the great phono-
graph impresario; This is a mechanic age.
We play our pianos by machinery. Let us
so act 0lr plays aud sing our operas, and be
done with it, Sooner or later We shall write
our plays by machinery too In fact sew
oral living playwrights have made very
good be ginning IN that direction.
After all. most Of US remain pleased With
a ratth ticked with straw, till the end OF
our days We vote and raise babies and
build Babylonic piles of steel and stone air
over Manhattan Island and write for news
papers and road Ibsen. But we love to
watch the wheels 60 round Just the same
We pore over pictures and when the pic
lures move we are tiokled into raptures.
Of course. Il is not nearly 20 wonderful that
a picture can move as that a man can. The
most intricate picture machine ever in
vented il less marvellous than the least
skilful acrobat who performs on a vaude-
vile stage The most perfect talking ma
chine ever perfected is less Of wonder than
the human throat. But unfortunately we
can all move. our sometimes lack Of grace
concealed by the kindly coverings Of con-
vention; and we all have larynxes, So we
marvel less when we set our limbs in action
than when picture moves and less when we
make a noise than when a noise Ia made by
machinery When he does something,
when she does something, We accept the
deed as matter Of course But when il
does something a miraclel And we
cape like children. Besides, it costs US
only N centsl
That last fact is not to be ignored by the
plAywrights. The managers can look out
for themselves, They generally do But
the playwrghts need protection, Canned
music is no more threatening to the royal
ties Of the song writers and composers than
canned drama will be to the royalties Of
dramatic authors il it gets the start all signs
now predict Some OF the playwrights
realing this took an active part in the re-
cent copyright hearing at Washington.
Others apparently do not realize it,, and
those who do not are the authors whose
work is most likely to be in demand for
canning purposes Presenting a play by
moving pictures and talking machine may
not be art hut If people pay money to see
the performance. and il because they pay
less money they are less tempted TO wit
ness the play adequately presented, the
author should surely have redress in sub
stantal form. Canned drama will have TO
figure on the statute books Of the nation.
That much dignity is its destiny.
Meanwhile the Yale University Dramatic
Association goes right on digging up I'M
played classics to present, just as II the
doom Of the man acted drama were not
sounded, They are coming to the Waldorf
tomorrow TO present free translation OF
Gogors comedy, "Reviz0r' CSThe In
spectorTD which in Russia and on the Con-
tinent has been classic since 1899, but
which. 50 Prof. Phelps declares-and we
cannot dispute him-has never been played
anywhere in English The Yale Dramatic
Association has given very good accounts
Of itself in years past Among it's produc-
tons have been The Second Shepherds
Play Heywood's "The Fair Maid Of the
West "The Critic, the first part Of Henry
w and last year Ibsen's "The Pre-
tenders The men have gone about their
work witt a thoroughness and an en-
thusiasm which suggested that their cul-
ture was not canned. Perhaps education
will be the last thing furnished by ma
chinery Perhaps after the Broadway
theatres are all given over TO the moving
picture, talking machine drama, our uni
versities, like Oxford the home Of lost !
causes and impossible loyalties, will still |
practise the forgotten art Of play acting |
by means Of the living form and the human !
voice And now and then some anti |
quarian will journey thither and come |
back 20 humble Of their strange, old fash |
ioned customs at Yale or Harvard, per-
chance to write a book that will have an |
enormous sale (manufactured) and be read |
by machines which by that time will have |
been installed for the purpose in every /
household, WALTER p EATON.