The New York herald., 1922-09-24
Nationalistic French Stage
Hampers Broadening Foreign
Influence.

upon the German theater, as 1t not only
opened the door 10 experimentation
tboth In the classics and In the opera)
from the angle of stage production. but
1t also gave more opportunity TO the
younger men than France had during
the same period.
This, too, explains why the subjects
of German drama are more sectional
and varied than In France. To-day
also one finds in Dresden. Leipsic
Frankfort, Munich and Berlin produc.
ing centers still vigorous under the pre-
war momentum, which is far from ex-
hausted. Ground rents had also some
thing previously TO do with this. for 1t
permitted Reinhardt to build large
theater in Berlin which economically
would have been impossible in Paris.
These many producing centers, which in
their nature became repertoire theaters,
offered. IL only from the numerical
point OF view. hospitality to plays of
foreign authorship. Even during a re-
cent summer week | spent In Munich
for the Wagner Festspiele the bill
boards Announced plays by Shaw, CAL
deron, Shakespeare, Ibsen. with a half
dozen French plays thrown In. Incl
dentally, ! am told that the Berlin
theater last winter lived on French
loves these oddly enough) sandwiched
In among real serious experiments
which even difficult financial times did
not entirely eliminate at certain con-
spicuous theaters. l myself saw
Potash and Perlmutter' gayly sailing
along to a record.
"Financially, of course, the German
theater is having difficult times, though
the taxes are not so heavy, and never
were, as in France State subsidies have
been cut or eliminated, which, together
with the fall in the mark. have made
new productions practically impossible.
But new productions GO on. and these are
mainly made possible by the use of the
marvellous lighting equipment which
most of the theaters had before the war.
"Yet other difficulties are at work to
destroy the discipline and efficiency or
former effort As Reinhardt himself told
me, the motion picture has offered such
big prices to leading actors that they
demand freedom from rehearsal. SO II
Is difficult to keep together the perma-
nent troupe which before the war was
such a force in German artistic life.
Reinhardt himself Is so discouraged by
ali the difficulties that ! should be very
much surprised to see him produce at
all In Berlin this winter.
"As to the plays which are being
written to-day, there is nothing of great
Importance. though Toller is the freest
spirit of the new group, and he Is in
jail. Immediately after the war. I am
told, that the tendency was very revo-
lutionary, with bitter attacks on mill
tarism and on many OF the other ills the
Younger men saw in their own country.
But the hopelessness of the political
situation has changed much OF that.
Exactly what the future direction will
be no one can say i; certain plays, ike
the social dramas of Ibsen, have tenn
nora rily passed from the repertoire, as
there are no Nords in Germany to-day.
Instead one finds q consciousness of the
Individual being caught in mass move
i.lents so we'll illustrated in the produc-
ton of plays like "Machinensturmer,
at the Crosse Schauspielhaus In Ber-
lin"
do you thing the large theater as
well as modern stage production gives
freedom to the dramatists?'
More Freedom Beneficial.
There is no such thing as freedom in
the theater any more than in life; there
Is only more or less freedom. Anything
that shakes tradition Is good. bat moth
ing new is final-there have heen so
many new things, But the modern
tendency to break up the narrow re-
strictions is, of course, of great beEefit
t. US all. II makes much possible In
the way Of new production and revital-
ICES the old. The more freedom the
dramatst can have before an audi
ence. the more he can venture.
But the dimensions are Jealous OF
one another. When you increase in
height you decrease in breadth. An
enormous stage. such as Reinhardts 8
in Berlin. Is phenomenal for mass plays
where the audience becomes part of
the action, but as the actor gains In
sweep he loses in subtlety. In a whole
company which played the Toller drama
/ only saw three actors who had mas
tered the difficult art of being both
broad and subtle. When one must
shout to be heard in the last row, those
in the first rows. as ! happened to be.
are vocally pulverized. That's what
mean by saying this newer freedom
Is in itself limiting. for these theaters
need plays especially written for them
where the emphasis is placed on groups
and pantomlme and they need actors
especially trained to interpret them.
"But all experiments are good. My
feeling sometimes Is, speaking of mod
ern tendencies In staging and in decor,
that directors nowadays are very much
tempted by plays which afford oppor-
tunities for scenic stunts. In an Ameri-
can paper 7 recently saw a request OF
a new organization for one act plays
which must offer opportunity for pic
torial effects. In the United States
certainly the tendency has been In this
direction among all the little theater
groups, for, relying as they must. In
many cases, upon amateur acting, they
have quite naturally swung more and
more to gain their effects 10 emphasis
on production This is healthy so long
as IL does not eliminate the subtle
psychological drama which. too, should
have its place In modern repertoire and
not be completely relegated. since Il
may not inspire scenic expression.
"Of course In Germany the large and
small theaters have gone hand in hand
with many exaggeraticns on the scenic
side. asked Relnhardt at Salzburg
what he thought OF certain models for
stage pro ductions, which ] had seen at
Munich, noting that not one of them was
for any but fantastic or romantic plays.
He said Those are fantasies and after
washes OF a movement which tended to
place too much emphasis upon scenery.
The actor Is and must continue TO be
tho center of the play. All else IS
decadence. confess ! haven't been able
TO keep UP with the newer movements.
There's one called expressionism now.
II is sufficient TO say that the whole
tendency in Germany is % break with
t,.lttsnn upJ IA forrn faaxr aud uaWar