New-York tribune., 1915-02-22

~ pertinent to ask If stage picture
is in harmony with the genius of the
theatre. Is it adjusted so perfectly to
the spoken word and the appropriate
action that the eye and the ear regis
ter a single sensation? Above all. does
il make the inevitable fourth side 20
the darkened house, its lights expos
irg another world. as the latter is OK
posed by an open window? To receive
the ideal impression Of such picture
Z is essential, Of course. that thc be-
holder should use his Imagination; he
must give the stage decorator his due
poetic license" must meet him half
way. But the stage decorator must do
as much for the beholder. and it IL
Just there that the new school threat
ems to break down. II is too insistent
upon its own ends. which are pictorial
rather than theatrical. II is too self
conscious.
Mr.. Wilkinson's starry drop scene
has nothing convincingly starry about
it, and as he denies us illusion. fore
ing the thing upon us for IT'S own
sake, we resent the intrusion. con
ventional surface like the beautiful
vine-covered curtain with which the
Tlay opens would be less disturbing
same way the forest scene is made up
Of unrelated and therefore distract
ing parts, the canopy mentioned above,
and the heart-breaking wreath. teasing
the eve where IL is peculiarly impor-
tant that the picture should be "all Of
piece" A scene like that is hope
less without an enreloDpe. In the pal
ace scene the placing of the Duke and
1 -. a. LII. al g,f "a f,lA
form on which Bottom and his fellows
disport themselves is ingenious IN so
far as il helps us clearly to see the
play within the play, but the groups
,hus brought into the immediate fore
ground are irrelevant as elements in
the picture. They play into the hands
Of a practical purpose, but they spoil
the composition. And imagine an
nrtist, with the upper motive in this
scene 10 paint, developing il against
a literal cluster of heavy pillars! lie
would simplify at that point, to give
his central group its proper value.
II columns he had to have he would
make them slighter and would space
them further apart. And another
thing that he would do, in his effort
TO secure light and air, would be 10
lift the roof little. Mr.. Wilkinsons
beams, like his wreath, crush every
thing beneath them.
Is this not because he thinks too
much Of his properties, one by one, and
not enough of them as parts OF a
whole? When he was devising that
palace was he not thinking of it as a
building by itself instead OF as a
means TO an end? These may seem
rather ungrateful questions, the whole
spirit Of the Barker productions is so
obviously sincere, so obviously signifi-
cant Of resolution TO spare no pains
in the achievement of something new
and beautiful. But one of the oddities
Of artistic endeavor of which criticism
is sometimes obliged 10 take note IS
the tendency Of the best intentioned
artists TO overshoot the mark. A droll
instance is provided by one Of the
greatest of modern masters, Whistler.
Years ago he was affronted by the bad
taste with which certain etchers signed
their plates, taking up lot Of space
on margins far too wide, not only
with their names but with silly
little sketches which they called ere
marques" In righteous rebuke Of the
vulgar practice he cut the margins
from his etchings. leaving only the sig
nature, the famous butterfly, TO Jut
out from the bottom OF the paper. The
Whistlerians, Of course. accepted the
device as inspired. Observers more
humorously inclined noticed the fact
that by this artless process Whistler,
OF all people in the world, had done
more than any one else TO give the sig
nature on an etching an aggravated con
sLicuity, TO advertise II, TO flourish IL
as no less important and precious than
the etching itself. Some such blunder
as this seems 10 US TO mark Mr. Bar
ker's production Of "A Midsummer
Nights Dream" He aims. we are sure,
at the presentation Of a ShakespeaTian
play. But he gives us series Of Bar
er-Wilkiuson tableaus to begin with,
and incidentally suffers the misfortune
Of not quite justifying them in their
nu.n forms