The New York herald., 1921-05-15

play, OuCe ltS AiISe PoPraiity -
exhausted, is as dead as mutton.
Rsvivals have become all but un-
known in the New York theatre.
Miss Doris Keane or Miss Laurette
Taylor may occasionally play again
the part in which her fame was made,
but beyond such an exploitation Of an
admired personality the old play is
useless in New York.
In this respect the audiences of the
metropolis are not unlike those OF
other large cities. London has no
repertory theatre. There play ex-
hausts its popularity and goes into the
discard. Paris has its eubventioned
theatre in the Coincide Franchise, at
which the classics are revived as well
as old plays that may seem deserving
OF that honor. In the other theatres
a play that pleases the public is kept
almost unremittingly on view SO long
as theatregoers will pay for the privi-
iege Of witnessing it. This is true to-
day of the playhouses In Berlin. VI
emma and Rome. The popular play is
too difficult to acquire for any man
ager to imperil its value by taking it
from the sight of any public eager to
watch II.
New York audiences are especially
impatient in the presence of any play
that has been acted before. They may
never have witnessed 1t. They may
know nothing about 1t. Yet the mere
fact that 1t has been played is suf-
ficient to rob the public Of all interest
in It, There were few attempts at re-
vivals even in the last years of the
stock companies. They had already
become impossible. 1t rarely happens
that a manager Is courageous enough
nowadays to announce a revival. Mr..
Harris is the only person who has
dared to suggest that he may In the
future present again a number OF
plays already familiar.
Could DO with strindberG..
Just how close to the actual life of
the theatre critical commentators on
the drama may become Is shown In
n book of essays by a gifted lady
writer. In 1t she deplores the de-
parture Of the drama from the stand
ards of Ibsen and Strindberg. Its
present debased condition is attributed
10 the failure to follow the trail these
two playwrights Of the North blazed
in their work.
OF course this sort of writing Is
Intended for the drama OF "the closet"
This is some apochryphal and scholar
" retreat into which those retire who
read their plays with fasting and
prayer. Nothing used so much TO de-
light the Shakespearian actors press
agent as his success In drawing some
college professor into a discussion as
10 whether Shakespeare were Intended
I'm this age for the stage or the
closet" 1t is to this highly literary
form of the drama that such learned
bodies as the authority quoted turn
their attention.
Suppose that managers were guided
by their supposed knowledge and set
out. for instance, to put some simon
pure strindberg before the public.
THE writer cannot recall any play of
strindberg in a regular theatre here
with the single exception of a two
weeks season organized by GLAND
Warner az the Berkeley Lyceum. The
Theatre Guild gave two private per-
formances OF THE Dance OF Death"
fer their subscribers last year which
the public would havo been fortunate
20 see. There have also been matinees
of this authors plays at different times.
ALA Nazimova even acted Countess
Julie" in Russian.
These plays have always been. so TO
speak. dramatic hors d'oeurre. What
would ever happen to the New York
impresario who attempted season Of
strindberg? Ibsen. the most advertised
playwright Of tho era, has brought