New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-03-09
By Ralph Block

There are so many people in the
world now who can afford to go to the
,bsatrc that if you can manage to get
few of any of one kind off in a corner
lonc enough to whisper your idea to
them you can have almost any kind
If theatre you want. This is good
system so long as YOU stay within the
limits Of approaching your own kind
Of theatre. When you aren't satisfied
any longer with merely having what
YOU want, but so out of your way to
make somebody else want to have it,
probably somebody who didn't prmar-
ily want to have it at all, then your
own artistic idea begins to suffer by
the wrong kind of attention. 1t is ar
inverted kind of devotion. AS for
being the victim OF artistic propa-
sanda, it is like having someone cram
iellycake down your throat when
you're cryngly hungry for black bread.
At any rate there are q lot Of people
who like Shakespeare and burlesque
who don't give q continental for snappy
4
one high priced front row seat at the
Winter Garden to the highest priced
Othello in the world pouring the pillow
down Dcsdcmona's throat. There is no
accounting for these things. They are,
like babies and policemen and cold
roast beef. An attempt to pry the
Winter Garden fan from his front row
in favor OF a discreet orchestra seat
at the Shakespeare Playhouse is like
trying to elevate a house by inserting
hoist under one corner, the more you
jack 1t up the heavier the blamed thing
rests on the other three points HUI
man beings don't elevate unless YOU
start them on all sides, and even then
it's dubious job.
great deal of first class doggercl
used to be written about the democracy
Of the theatre. The theatre is prob
ably the most democratic of the arts
If 1t is, 1t doesn't really matter-but
the people who used to rave about il
wanted you to take their own definition
Of democracy. Now the theatre is
democratic in just the fashion this
thesis has disclosed; field for mag
NATIVE outlet and frolic is In it some
where for every one regardless of the
kind of person he is-president, fool
or knave. But the democracy ex
horters had 1t that the theatre was
democratic for their kind of amuse-
bo NJ rto
chance he'd desert the movies for
Shaw At the present writing, how
ever, 1t doesn't look as if Shaw and
lbsen could carry township between
them, at least while Hart and Fair
banks are still in the running.
good deal of this misapprchcnsion
of things as they are grew out of the
amusing notion that the best, being
he best, ought TO be instantly recoy-
med and patronizod as such by every
one One look at the life We live, even
ono wink at New York while passing
over 1t In high-spced racing plane.
ought TO be enough to show any intel
ligcnt person that that is not tho cnao
in modern tmcs. Tho best, as snat-
ter Of fact, most Of tho timo is getting
the small end Of things as regular
ration, Most people shun the best
even If they do recognize it as such.
out OF lingering notion, that may or
may not be heritage from the Greeks.
that all extremes are bad. Anyway,
modern civilization is a grand, discord
ant tune, played over the whole scale
with most Of the noise at the middle
In other words, it is marked, if not by
mediocrity, at least by the acclaim of
tremendous majority that is not in
favor Of distinction, and the theatre
comes under the curse, just as does
everything else.
Indeed, il the theatre were not 80
democratic 1t would be a great deal
better off. Virtually all the great dra-
ma OF the world was created for aris
tocracles. The Greeks were aristocrats.
and Shakespeare, Marlowe, Sheridan
and Moliere all worked for cultivated
audiences. Nowadays only people of
cultivated tastes take to Ibsen and
shaw and Strindberg and Tchekov and
granville Barker. Many Of these peo-
pie are, IS rule, very poor, and by
Inc only measure which the modern
world makes feasible-possession Of
"eaith-the aristocrats 90 elsewhere
ane theatre, therefore, suffers largely
because most of its intelligent appreci-
s'ors haven't great deal Of money.
"nere aristocracy was imbcdded in
'ne structure Of the state wealth and
taste at least had chance to 20 to-
sethef, and the theatre, along with tho
other arts, profited
The modern critic Of society who is
Watching the modern theatre takes