The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-04-03

time, of course but these things VIII | come about. There are already strong indications of this. AS for Ibsen's works, they will probably not become popular literature, for they must be read often 1 to be fully understood and appreciated; but their progress on the stage is diff ferent matter Most people who read Ibsen for the first time wonder how he can be acted at all, but the truth is 1 that he is essentially dramatist not literateur.
 T assure you that I feel, after hav- ing acted in an Ibsen play, as if there were little else worth the effort of se- rious artists; that is among the works created today. This seems extreme, or course; but I fancy that I am much the same as those who have been successful in Shakespearean representation. They are never satisfied with the mod ern, and especially the trivial modern, of which the current drama is so largely l composed. I do not claim to know Shakespeare intimately The modern ap- peals to me much more strongly than l the ancient or medieval There can be nothing so vital to the people and to the thought of the present day as the pas sions, the tragedies and the beauties of the life about us, although the form of expression is restrained to meet the con ventionalities of the times. It is my be- | lief that the great repertoifes of the. great players of the future will be the 1 playes of Shakespeare and of lbsen. Surely, there will be the Ibsen repertoire just as now there is the Shakespearean repertoire. Actors and public will not pc able to escape from the spell of Ibsen | characters. They fascinate, they lure you to study; they bring you closer to life.
 'Unquestionably I believe Ibsen is the apostle of absolute truth, and that his dramas mean something that is human. His opinion is not one expressed for ef- feet He is too great an artist to em- ploy such methods
 Continuing, MT. Walthall said: Fer dnand Brunetiere has declared that there can be no tragedy without struggle}! nor can there be genuine emotion for the spectator unless some N thing other and greater than life is at Stake This so exactly defines the dramas of Henrik Ibsen that it might have been especially written to de- scribe their dramatic content.
 "Ibsen's symbolism is that of Baude- lalre," Mir. Walthal continued. "All ni.ture is a temple filled with living pillars and the pillars have tongues and speak in confused words, and man walks through a forest of count less symbols
 'The stage is Ibsens pulpit" he continued but he is first the artist; his moral as in all great drama, is implicit. He is doubter-yes; he often answers one question with an- other question; and if he builds high ha also builds deep
 Speaking specifically. MT. Walth all said, Ghosts when it followed the scandal created by the first ap- pearance of A Dolls House, seemed like a deliberate affront to Ibsen's critics, gauntlet hurled into their faces by the sturdy arm of the dra '. matist. Like much that is great in art, Ghosts is very painful play; Ibut Macbeth, Lear and Oedipus Rex are also painful plays, but classics. lThere are many painful pictures in the small gallery of the worlds great asf a rf oy,d in, a = lples are not wanting. Perhaps the most poignant emotional music that has ever been written may be found lin the last movement of Tschaikow- sky's Pathetic symphony It is cosmic in it's hopeless woe.
 T have studied Ghosts carefully, assiduously," MT. Walthall declared,
 ''and I love it; here we are confronted
 by the lonk arm of coincidence; in
 other words, thought projection.
 The boy Oswald, hearing Of z This fathers misdemeanors and by hereditary possibilities, he awaits j the coming of the climax in his own life. I know of few more touch ling, scenes, in all the classics of the
 stage, than the scene between Mrs
 Alvng and her son. Oswald, and thu horrible confession with follows II
 is like a blast from charnel house
 and the power, the greatness of it i'
 unsurpassed only by the supert
 shakespearean classic. King Lear 1T Tits magnificent lucidity and filiai suf'
 fering."
 The finale. the madness of the boy
 the grief of the mother" MT. Walthal
 declared, "are but every day human
 conditions, visualized by the great Is
 ben. Ghosts. ghosts-always ghosts s IAnatole France once said: If the vii of those who are no more is to De i'm posed upon those who still are. it il tthe dead who live and the live mel s<ss< ~ x<sss zsa1e1.zx