The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-03-30
Liliioim Creating
Interesting And
Enthusiasm

l. success both financially and arts
tically which was anticipated by thos'
instrumental in forming this organiza
ton. The plays that have been giver
under the able direction of Mr.. Bernard
Sold have been enjoyed and well cast
bringing out the best in our local
talent. ~
At first the Little theatre offerings
were of a light kind but those who
have given their best effort in theil
acting have been shown that something
of different character can be given
by our own would-be professional &C
tors and appreciated by the people Of
Birmingham. 49,
"Liliom," by Franz Molnar, has
created much interest as it is quite
different, its presentation being eagerly
anticipated April 10-11-12. In talking
of "Liliom" recently someone said
"Liliom' and he smiles in the darkness
over the thorough satisfaction Of
Molnar's creative talent. He has even
used film technique and evolved a
plastic dramatic form that brought a
welcomed relief from the classics-bound
constructions a perfect blending of
of successive crises substituting for the
traditional dramaturgy. Why the man
has succeeded in visualizing life as
wave crests with the unalterable pathos
of the final wave merging into an in
distinguishable sea-and through it all,
preserving the real colors of life: the
common, homely colors one sees when
one really looks and realizes it.
And how artfully he handles the
miserableness of it, all its petty abysms
and heights, all its tedious impossible
tiles Of herd instincts! With less clever
handling one would have seen nothing
but drab sordidAess; yet his play
energies, never malicious, never bit
ter; but a pitiful little divine Com
edy" with a whimsicality of pathos
that is heart-scalding.
| Heart-scalding ah, the hearts of
men After all, aren't all their hearts
similar, in spite of dissimilarity of their
actions? Their actions may differ as
widely as the poles but dig down into
motives and one finds them with pitt
fully small differences. Who is it that
says that the sheath of love is but
brutality? Liliom-heir of imperious
instincts in a tightly and legalized
moral world hasn't brains enough to
think himself beyond his demands and
restrictions. All men created free and
equal! One mayn't kick USE
less smile it away, if one can
Laugh clown, laugh at
Liliom and how his whole impulse
at expressing this unsurmountable
tedium takes on the brutal strain, and
how he strikes, out Of his misery, in
puny effort to present form of
superiority-and at jules tears poor
pawn that he is, he endures the fires
Of hell of his own beliefs and crea-
ton and energies with the same essen
tial characteristics with which the i'm
placable system brought him forth
What a monstrous joke it is. But the
joke is on the man-made world and
the man-made heaven because both have
used force on Liliom--and failed. But
Julie? Julie used love. There are blows
that don't hurt; oh yes, there are
blows that you don't feel. "Love does
not feel blows. 1t makes no demands, nor
coerces, nor impressions. jules doesn t
poignant pitifulness.
And the movie men might well take
another tip from Molnar: One must,
after all, admit the cruelty and the
stupidity; else, one achieves a hollow
optimism that rings falsely and seeks
to establish false values. Such admis-
sion brings out poignancy that life
achieves for US, sooner or later, and
willy-nilly. No use in burying ones
head in what one would like to think
Of as golden sands. That keeps one
from seeing the approach from behind
and the subsequent robbing of choicest
tail feathers. That makes bathos, when
after all it's pathos that creative talent
strives for. No pathos for Liliom. The
end comes with breaking force at his
pitiful perplexity and his anguished
haste to prevent his little girl from
leaving him; and once again, poor hu-
man, his brutality sheaths his love and
he strikes in final frantic desperation
and anxiety. Baffled perplexity at the
squirrel-cage existence a mad
fight against seeming stupid and in
superable obstacles inherited at in
voluntary birth tragedic
. stark but tenderIy
pathetic and whimsical striking of a
note that rings clear and true for all
its misery.