Voice of action. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1933-1936, 1934-11-16
Mrs. James
Reports -

/
Festival in Moscow. As told to
Hack Thomas.
On my way to Russia / visited
the British Theatre Festival at
Mulvern, England. The plays l
saw were dead and dull. The wo-
men visitors waved their lorgn-
cites and went into ecstacies.
what do you think of them?'
they asked me.
said the plays were tripe,
pure tripe, that they were plays
of nothing about no one.
That ended our conversations,
but it was the same with the the
aires of London and New York.
All dull, dead and offering no
contribution to culture or edu-
cation. Except the Workers The
aires in New York.
Workers Theatres Live
They are real live, dynamic. /
saw "Stevelore" and Tobacco
Road in New York, and the aud
fence was on its feet yelling with
the actors as the play ended.
And every performance playing
to a packed house. Workers
theatres are the only hope for the
American stage.
In Moscow L saw an anti-relig-
ious exhibit-and if you could see
the wealth the Soviets have con-
fiseated from the church, wealth
squeezed from the peasants who
didn't have shoes, you'd agree,
| think that the exhibit was a
healthy one: cases and cases of
robes laden with pearls, dia-
monds, gold plate-even diamond
studded horse collars! While the
poor starved!
Then there was priests num-
my on exhibit, its withered hand
blackened by the thousands of
peasants kisses who came to pray
for relief from cancer, asthma,
barrenness.
Kissing the mummy's hand,
the peasants were told, cured and
healed. Because God had pre-
served the priests body by a mir
acle.
Peasant and Priest
But the Soviets now have a
peasants mummy beside the
priest's-dug from the same
ground. 1t too is fossilized, but
not due to any miracle, as the
peasants see for themselves. So
now they go to doctors, free, for
healing, instead of kissing a
mummy's hand.
In Moscow theatres, plays are
so well acted you get the thread
of the story, even the jokes, even
though you can't understand the
language.
And always the theatres are
packed. Producers aren't worried
about the box office"
If they feel they have some
thing good, they produce it, and
sometimes play for a year or so
before the play catches" enough
to be put on tour. In bourgeois
America, one nights failure will
ruin a producer and his hackers.
visited an art museum. A
group of Red Soldiers were going
through with their guide. l asked
my guide what they were being
told.
Soldiers Interested in Art
They're learning about French
impressiOnism," she told me. Sol
diers interested in French I'M
pressionism! Can you beat it?
saw a play in the Children's
Theatre. 1t included a ballet, a
three-ring circus with the most
versatile clowns I've ever seen,
animated movie cartoons, and
wound up with the plays small
hero sitting in the audience with
the kids. The kids went wild.
Every theatre has its own per-
manent group of actors, and
permanent orchestra director,
with a 20 to 30 piece orchestra.
Special music is written for every
production.
A new theatre under construc-
ton in Moscow will be large
enough to march the Red Army
through, it's director promises.
From my hotel window / saw
a squad of Red Army soldiers
marching across Red Square to
relieve the guard at Lenin's tomb.
Suddenly the soldiers burst into
song until they had disappeared
into the tomb. Do American SOL
diers sing while on duty? Have
they got anything worthwhile to
sing about?
The Russian people, it's gov
eminent, it's Red Soldiers and its
theatre are leading the world out |
of the mundane, dead and stupid,
into the vital.
I'm going back again to Russia
as soon as l can.