The farmer and mechanic., 1911-10-03

produced a great objective drama.
and told vital truth beautifully anc
all the world went to see It, but not SO
with some of his later blurs. We will
not pay 81 (crassly commercial as
this sounds) to watch mystery fit over
our heads; hence hence JoyzeiAe
non-success here
We are not an aesthetic people-r
we were, we would prefer tragedy to
our fnsistent happy endings; to the
lover Of beauty there IS more pleasure
in pain than in pleasure itself; Dut
that does not mean that we are not
keenly appreciative to truth. the pri-
NAL necessity Of a great drama. To
dig out from the life about us a great
and as yet an unseen truth, to let it
gradually unfold itself through the
lives Of human beings Will always win
its due Of recognition"
"But you wouldn't advise the young
dra matist to write down to the pub
lic?"
mo, not 'down'-but write out with
a sure swift stroke 50 it striker every
heart in the audience: then high and
lo<r, big and little, will cry out in ap-
probation. I don't mean to say that
public taste is at the hish-Water marx
of perfection or that this tired bust
ness person is not still the 'bogey-
man for every one who uses the pen
But there are at present three hope
full signs Of improvement, the most
significant of which is the growing
numb of independent and scholarly
young critics who know the traditions
of the drama and who bring to the
play in question an open mind and an
authoritative utterance. They are as
yet too few, for dramatic criticism
with US is practically worthless, being
neither a guide to the public nor a
help to the dramatist Or actor. Had
we such a thing as a standard for
dramatic criticism. Trash would have
to hide it's head and not f1aunt her
self unreproved as she does today. [
believe that the mouth to mouth crit
cism Of the average play-goer, Mr..
Brown telling Mr.. Jones at their lunch
hour, it was a good play, and Mrs.
Brown telling Mrs. Jones the same
over the back fence. makes Or mars
a play more than the eulogy or fury
of any critic. Just as on the first
night we watch the faces of the stage
hands. as a barometer for the plays
future, and never think Of noticing
the people in the boxes or the critics
in the first row.
another hopeful sign is the num-
Der Of societies forming like the Cen
tury players, or the Mcdowell Socie
ty, the aim of whose existence is to
give the public an honest estimate of
while are discussed; the worthless be-
ing left unmentioned. But the most
influential because the most wide
spread method of educating the pub
lie dramatically, is the publication Of
play in the papers, scene by scene
and act by act. Why wouldn't people
read a popular play with as much in
terest as they do a good story? From
this will come the publication Of plays
in cheap paper volumes, such as is
the custom today in France and Ger
many Every shop~irl in Paris read
ing 'Chanticler' (for half france was
anxious to see it on the stage. Were
drama would come into it's own and,
we would be as willing to read the
current dramatist before we saw him,
as we are to study our Shakespeare
before we see it on the stage
But isn't it rather un-American to
make US study our lesson when we
wish only amusement?'
"You can entertain with substance
as we'll as with froth, and we cannot
get away from the serious while Ibsen
remains the dramatic and before whom
We all bow. Consciously or uncon
sciously the dramatist for the next
hundred years will be under his influ-
ence. He revolutionized the theatre
Of the world-made US tell our story
| without poetic playing, eliminated the
| soliloquy and simplified the drama to
| its own beautiful natural elements
Even his scenario is initiated. What
curtain does not rise on a sitting room
with two people talking in a seeming
| ly idle. natural way to each other, but
with everything vital to the drama
coming out in the TALK?
TT is not only the power Of Ibsen
| himself that has made him SO omnip-
| otent in the drama. but his realism
| fits sQuarely into our practical minds.
! He never wrote a word for the sake
| Of a word, but built his drama as eco
nomically as the architect his house:
| drew his plans before and kept to
/ them vigorously. Let the young dra-
| matist man or woman. take need be-
| fore he dashes off with only inspira-