The Washington times., 1923-03-25
STAGE WRIT Il
TOO ExACTlNG,
His PLANT
Therefore, Senior Benavente
Decides He WIN Depend
Hereafter on Printed Page
and Silent Audiences.
BY EARLE DORSEY.

- 4SOA4 NAAG CAAAAhCAAOS "a @AAG
high literary, Alp. Jacinto
Benavente, easily one of the
foremost dramatists of Spain and
q man whose vogue is increasing
yearly in the. American theater,
announces that from now hence
S forward, -he will write. no more
plays for stage production.
Senior Benavente viii continue
writing; he is quite explicit on
that point; but hereafter, his plays,
like so many of George Bernard
Dhaw's. will be- sent first to the
publisher and not to the producer.
Once printed, the producers may
% what they like with them
always provided. of course, that
the royalty Is looked to. But in
sofar as writing plays for pro-
duction direct from manuscript is
concerned, Senior Benavente is
done.
In letting this literary sensation
drop upon New York a week ago,
the dramatist sets forth his rea-
sons. The first concerns the fact
that there il simply and solely
too much labor involved, from
Benavente's standpoint, in pro-
ducing a play. Furthermore, he
declares that the stage. no matter
; what its virtues. and advantages
may be. can never convey the in
tentions. of the dramatist with the
accuracy and clarity OF the
printed page.
The first reason alone il proba-
bly, controlling. It Is little bit
difficult to take seriously the
statement concerning the inability
81 the stage to visualize the i'm
tentions Of an author as accurate
or as clearly as may be done in
print.
There Is no doubt, of course,
. that the task OF the playwright
even such q playwright as Bena-
vente, is only half done when he
has shaved and toiled through $50
pages or more. of dialogue. The
worst part Of 1t is the business Of
impressing the authors. meaning
and intention upon the average
player, 50 that the player, in turn.
may properly transmit to the au.
dience.. the spirit as well as the
letter of the work.
Senior Benaventeis second 1gea-
sOn-the. superiority Of the book
form over the stage form-inust be
taken with a smile. It would seem
that here he is buttressing his
premise with rather weak areu.
ment.-
Regardless Of ones power to
visuaIize-and few have that power
In any but the. smallest degree-it
Is absurd to claim, for example,
that O'NeiIl's ANNA Christie, in
book form, reaches the summit of
force and objective clarity that 1t
attains at the hands OF Pauline
Lord, George Marion, and that
young Irishnan in the footlight
version. To drop a bit lower in
the scale, how could one hope to
visualize the bare manuscript Of
"Dulcy" with one-tenth the de-
lightful interest and clarity Of pur-
pose that Lynn Fontanne puts into
her appreciation and enactment of
the title role.
No. fear Senior Benavente
has only one reason-the matter
Of excessive labor-to explain his
desertion of the footIights as a
writer. That reason is sound
enough but the moment he drags
in the secondary equation, one
cannot dispel the impression that
the good senior doth protest too
much.
|" HE dispatches from Broad
way, where Charlie Chap
n Inns new picture. 1.-The Pill
GRIM has recently been given
its screen premiere. indicate that
the New York clergy is up in
arms over the alleged unnecessary
faudevSov i'm THE sYicfI,ro 20 ,,aI,n