The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1922-11-19
ONE NIGHT IN TURIN.

ONE NIGHT IN TURIN.
have just come back from a per-
Torrance Of Saul" at the Opera House.
They tell me hat Duse was
here few weeks age and stayed at
this hotel. ] wonder II abe could have
had this room. At aiS rate, I will
pretend that she did. And sure-
ly she must have had the same audi
ence that saw tonight. An audience
as alive as tree in a wind very
quick 70 hiss itself into attention and
big enough TO fill the Metropolitan; and
listening with severe pleasure to the
bombast Of a Biblical drama which
couldn't understand and didn't try to.
II was simple and stately and. now and
then, exciting. and delivered in those
big colorful voices. with those swift big
gestures, that never seem ridiculous
except when assumed by American or
EhsHsh actors. Even so. they are
sometimes very effective No
wonder they liked James X In Paris.
This Italian audience would have adj
mired him, too. | felt ready 10 weep
one day when he showed me his notices
from the London and Paris critics
and his decorations from the French
Government. and told me something of
his triumph over here. It's a very fine
thing to venture upon a new road In a
strange country. and Hackett turned his
back upon his every day roles when he
turned his back unon America and went
10 England to produce Shakespeare. I
think his OtheiIo is very fine--yery i'm
pressive. I'm not sure how | should
have liked Ills Macbeth, but ST. John
IRVINE told me II was extraordinary. He
said that Hackett was not only every
inch man." so TO speak. but also
great military figure. can imagine It,
1t seems to me there are two
ways of doing" Shakespeare-each
equally thrilling. The obvious way. Of
| course. is Hackett's way; as recital
at u concert grand pitch-for music. for
climaxes-of emotion an1 tone. for pa
geantry. and tumult--such an attack
conquers any audience that permits it,
self TO be a natural audience it con-
quers the audience sufficiently sophisti-
Gated to delight in tho blare of the
trumpets of great poetry-and to be
aware that there Is place in litera-
ture sacred to the tales of gods and
heroes and It conquers. too. the simpler
mind TO whom the melodrama of such
tales is sutfi"ien cause for excitement
But Shakespeare is also an ideal little
theater" dramatlst.
should like TO see Macbeth" or
Hamlet given at the Provincetown
Theater staged In some such fashion as
Emperor Jones'" or THE Hairy Ape"
which unfortunately. I've missed by
being away. / think the swiftness OF
thought. the clear play of the intel
lectual processes, would come over
fresh and keen, with a new amazing
sense OF Intimacy, In such production.
production in which the soul of Mae
beth or the soul of Juliet almost whis-
pers to the audience. For ii is
true that In our generation. we
easily grow little contemptuous
OF what Is familiar 10 us--and We
Rave all known the raging beauty of
sound Of the Shakespearean drama since
the'days of our youth. That Is the only
reason. l think. why a performance ef
OtheHo by Hackett Is not so exciting
as II should be--as the cinema perform
ance. for instance OF Asst Nelson as
Hdnltet. ] am sure that this perform
ance OF saul" by these Italian actors.
II given at the Metropolitan Opera
House. would have seemed "a little ridicu
lous. but before an Audience In a city
as full OF waving arms as the stage
itself and as full Of the swift sound of
human voices racing to express the
fluent energies OF mind and emotion, IL
was only gravely beautiful, and beaut-
fully earnest one felt swept along.
The passionate recitative-far away
from the habits OF expression common
to our race or Americans are a race)
and even TO our stage never seemed
awkward nor old fashioned. Most drama