Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1934-06-10


Since the stage is bounded by four
walls and shielded from the high
heavens it can. of course, never ap-
proximate reality. The best it can
do is to lead the spectator into the
realm of make-believe with such
mechanical skill that it fools the
very eyesight out of him. When
once he is literally out of the world
1t is then the dramatiSt'S privilege
to continue his little game and try
his best to make him believe his
words-whether they be fair or foul
The better the playwright the better
he can twist us around his finger.
The more reasonable the spectator
be thus twisted.
1t is this matter OF tolerance, or
rather intolerance, in the theater to
which we are getting. For some rea-
son patrons expect the impossible
these days. They are calling for
miraculous entertainment which never
was nor ever will be. They scott
at the sound of poetry and the ten
derness of tragedy, they sniff at
SllllSC dU SOlliCdy al Y
never so happy as when they are
able to disagree with their neighbor
who has had the great joy of find
ing something that he likes. No mat
ter how hard the dramatist en-
deavors to please his public, the
public will not be pleased. and if a
play is successful in one city in nine
cases out of ten it will be unpopular
in the next, the local citizens prid-
ing themselves on being as different"
as they possibly can.
We give you as an example of this
in The Lake" which we are assured
would have proSpered in New York
if it had not been so warmly greeted
here, and if it had bobbed around
the provinces for a longer period
before it made what they chose to
call stupidity triumphant entry into
Broadway
WHAT, now does the public want
w if it doesn't want what it is
getting? Granted that many plays
this season we're shabby and i'll put
together. there have been on the
whole as wide an assortment as you
could hope to find. Tolerance, how
ever, was lacking more than ever by
major audiences, and to such an
extent that very often there were
no audiences at all
It is our belief that in almost any
entertainment there is corner of it
which appeals to somebody. If it does,
then it is that persons privilege to
find it out and enjoy it. But how may
this be done If people all around and
about are calling out against it. and
host of hostile celebrities declaim
against its smallest virtues?
1t is almost unbelievable for us now
to look back on that day when DR..
Hans Kinder came to us and asked
us whether or not he should go to
Mary of Scotland" But why not?"
we asked. "Oh, just because every
body have heard speak about it says
that it is lousy" Yet, to many,
many thousands this play has been a
revelation-a revelation in that Max
well AnderSon'S words were often as
sweet as music, and his thoughts far
greater than perhaps the people for
whom they were intended. and
while the play was being played you
could conjure up history in some of
its noblest and some of its sorriest
forms and be led into flights of fancy
which yanked you pleasantly out of
the problems of the moment.
Nor was Mary Of Scotland" the
only popular play We have heard in
weighed against. Her Masters Voice"
as innocent and as pleasant an even
ing in the theater as you will find,