The New York herald., 1922-07-09
TWOSCHOOLSOF ART
CONTEST SUPREMACY
ON ITALIAN STAGE
Theater of Ideas Gradually
Displacing Theater Of
Situations.
GORE AND DUELS PASS
New Departure Began With
D'Annunzio and Has
Proved Success.
GORE AND DUELs PASS

Special Cable to THE NEw York HEsALD.
New York Herald Bureau.
Rome. July 3. g
The project for establishing a per-
manent Italian theater OF art and
drama in New York city. which Is be-
ing agitated here this summer by For
tunato Gallo. director Of the San Carlo
Grand Opera Company of America, is
only one Of the evidences that Italy
has developed a theater of It's own
and is anxious to go into the "expor-
tation" stage. The theater Is now
national interest in Italy. and discus
sions as to the merits of the new and
the old schools occupy as much space
in many newspapers as political or
economic matters.
The development Of a new and en-
tirely original kind of theater in Italy
has given rise to feeling of national
pride. and competition with the plays
of America, and especially of France,
is keen. American plays of the old
and new types are still given a warm
reception on the Italian stage. Peg
o. Ny Heart making a tardy appear
ance here in April at the same time
| that Arthur Pineros "Theo Fraser"
attracted audiences desiring a newer
sort of art.
Battle OF Old and New.
The battle between the old and the
new theater is as in other countries. a
! battle between the theater Of the idea
and the theater Of situations. between
the theater which exists for arts sake
and the theater which exists to make
money.
For many years the theater of Italy
was modelled after that OF France
with It's background of middle class or
wealthy people and with the eternal tri-
! angle as a base. The Italian versions of
triangular mishaps were often lurid and
accompanied by suicides. gore and dues
to suit the Latin temperament. Love
] interest. and the situation created by
criss-crossings OF the ardent passion.
were the invariable theme. The char
acters were simply instruments for car
rying out the tangling and untanglng Of
| Loves maypole
The first definite revolt against the
situation play" came with Ibsen when
the repercussions of the new school OF
] art were felt in Italy. The Idea play"
came into existence, but because IL was
an adopted idea II did not really -four
ish until Gabrielle d'Annunzio came on
the scene. His "Figlia di Jerio' was
an immediate success. as were the coll
! orful Francesca da Rimini" and the
rhetorical legend La Nave" but these
triumphs were always the success OF
the plays for themselves and not a
sign that Italian audiences had culti-
| waited definitely new taste.
| Stimulus came to the new movement
from another source, the idealistic phil
osophy Of Benedetto Croce. who has
practically made Italian culture for
the last twenty years. Croces thought
has penetrated and profoundly in
| fluenced art. political life and history
as II Is taught in the schools. 1t has
even brought metaphysics into the
| Italian newspapers and relativity into
art. The world was no longer snugly
hemmed In by circular horizon, but
became full of novel possibilities.
! The most picturesque result OF the
new turn in national psychology was
the production of the "grotesoue"
plays of Luigi Pirandello and his
school. Pirandello's six Characters
in Search OF an Author will be pro-
! duced in New York city next fall. and
also in various European cities. but
so far the interesting movement is not
known outside of Italy The gro
\ tesque" play inherited traits from
Wedekind and Bernard shaw and also
is a descendant OF the Italian marion
cite show; only in the new plays the
actors are pulled about not by the
whim OF the Snowman but BY the sii.
liness or fatality OF their own natures
Pirandello created a great stir when
he deserted professors life fou orsfive
years ago and began presenting plays
which completely threw overheard all
the good old conceptions about Drama
and stagecraft. He WILL for instance,
in his six Characters" suddenly bring
into the midst Of actors rehea.sing a
play the characters OF play which has
never been produced and the strange
situation then unwinds Of these actors
insisting on playing out their own roles
instead OF letting the actors Interpret
them. In costuming and stage technique
the grotesque play presents sometnng
entirely new. In several Of the plays
the actors are masked and their emo-
tions seem TO be mechanical ones cover
ing real distress or joy. or perhaps COW
cring nothing. the audience hardly
knows. The actors emotions are like
Shosts OF emotions. The 'grcte. que"
school has large following OF
dramatists. the best known being Luigi
Chiareli. Rosso di san Secondo and
Luigi Antoneli.
But the new theater. having more
need Of defenders. has rallied to It's
standards a group of young men who
call themselves the Pack OF Jackals"
and who do their utmost to live UP to
their name. They attend the premiere OF
play in full force and does nct
suit their fancy they simply lift 80
their voices and howl They bay aiss
at enemies OF the new theater. Berg
intensely natonalstlc they uphold ne
italian play above all others. es-e-
cially their French rivals. The "Jackals''
| are secret organization but issue n
bulletin IN defense Of the new theater.