Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-02

| all IS not Clearly Indicated.
1t is we'll enough known that
the so-called anachronisms i'll the
| Shakespearean works were often
deliberate violation Of historic &C
| .uracv in order to permit references
! in a satirical vein to topics OF cur
rent discussion. A rather daring
fight of imagination proposes the
| possibility that the thinkers had
grown arrogant III attitude toward
FDatrons OF their trade and that the
poet had selected Christopher Sly
as typical tinker in order to hold
| him ND TO ridicule i'll the eyes of
more important personages for
| whom the entertainment was de-
| signed.
Actors who in loyalty to poetic
drama insisted on playing lbsen and
kindred authors i'll defiance of the
greater prosperity to be gained by
more trivial things find the whirligig
of time bringing rewards as well
as revenges. Audiences have changed
and methods of critical discussion,
such as constitutes source OF con-
versational pleasure among those
who carry the interest of playhouse
observation into social interchange,
have undergone very marked
transformation.
X x X
The "palmy day actor survives
as a tower of strength i'll theater
which has come so suddenly to en-
large its artistic and intellectual de-
mands in order, possibly, to avoid
falling into constant controversy
with police authority. Mayor
Walkers determined announcement
that the New York stage must clean
up has led to conference OF mana
gers and promises to "be good i'll
the future. The efficacy of confer
ences and promises has been tested
before in theatrical matters as well
as in more important economic rela-
tionships. 1t is the '"palmy day.
audience and not the "palmy day"
actor that is fading from view. 1t
has been replaced by an audience
that is boldly searching for infor-.
nation not only about the best and
most ideal phases of human exis-
tence but about truths, however
ugly.
The "palmy day" audience was
superficial in its Judgment. There
were certain established rules ac-
cepted as test OF a players powers
and many theater fanciers went
through life firmly convinced that
there could be but one Hamlet or
one Juliet to a generation. Today
there may be many interpreters OF
the standard roles, each standing
upon merits of his own and not
compelled to dethrone another idol
in order to establish himself upon
the pedestal.
The 1bsen plays, like those later
and vastly, different, of Bernard
Shaw, were classified as library
plays. Discrimination went very
little beyond the question of whether
some well known role was being
competently played according to the
traditions with which it had been
long associated. New plays resem-
bled the old ones, with violences of
virtue emerging victorious over
vehemcnces of vice. The pattern
was so consistent that 1t enabled
the gentleman who had fingered at
the refreshment counter adjacent to
the lobby until an act was half over,
to come in chewing a coffee grain,
quite confident that he could pick
up the thread of the story because
of his knowledge OF how all plots
customarily worked out.
The "palmy day patron had little
use for Ibsen, who required close
analytical attention for genuine ap-
probation. Players deeply impressed
not only by masterful thinking, but
by forceful expressions and perfec-
| ton of dramatic proportion, insisted
upon playing Ibsen for their own
pleasure and that of intelligent
! friends and admirers.
Mrs. Fiske has played no less than
FIVE roles from Ibsen and has not
before this season included Ghosts"
among them. The reviewers in many
cities have been unrestrained in their
enthusiasm, and every newspaper
Office has been bombarded with bales
of typewriter paper describing the
unrestrained artistic joy in the dis
covery of Mrs. Fiske in Ghosts"
Both Mrs. Fiske and Ghosts" have
long attracted the attention of au-
thoritative compliment. What is
really remarkable is the combination
of these two intellectual forces rep
resenting genius in an author and
talent in player at psychological
moment in popular interest.
Such plays as THE Green Hat"
and Damaged Goods have brow
beaten audiences into a submissive
mood with. reference, to themes once
considered impossible. 1t is relief
| TO find a subject that has been
handled cleverly enough in the mat
ter Of dramatic interest, but with
very shallow philosophic insight, dis
cussed by an Ibsen. capable of apply
| ing the intellectual scalpel and
showed with merciless clarity the
course of a remorseless retribution
1t may be that there is a trace
OF practical showmanship in a Mrs.
Fiske revival of Ghosts" for it
comes as an artistic climax to a
series of explorations of a similar
topic. If the authorities become ut
terly relentless it may be necessary
| for players to do as Mrs. Fiske has
done and turn toward the classics.
Some of the old Wycherly and Con-
greve plays might compel ladies to
wear masks to the theater even now
in order to conceal their bushes.
Going further back, a translation
into plain English of "Lysistrata
would Immediately announce Aristo-
phanes as an author capable of out
Hopwooding Hopwood Our rever-
entail minds accept an ancient man
uscript as respectable merely because
it has been in large degree forgotten.
The vices and the foilies of the time