A New Language

...In the third group you will find the same complete departure from realism without any evidence of inner harmony or design...

...Geddes touches...

...But you can imagine that in the course of the production of the play, warm lights such as red and yellow could be made to play upon the dark side of the stage, and colder blue lights upon the red side with a harmonizing result...

...The point is that there are mysteries in life which can never be wholly expressed in words, for the simple reason that words are always finite and mysteries approach the infinite...

...The bizarre is deified for its own sake...

...Geddes has found a theme so much greater than himself that it summons the utmost striving of his art...

...For example, I recall one stage set in which the prevailing impression was brilliant red on one side and deep black on the other...

...Of course the misleading feature of all expositions of this sort is the absence of movement in light, color, and sound which gives the theatre its real magic...

...From the semi-realistic work of Claude Bragdon and Lee Simonson through the imaginative flights of Robert Edmond Jones to the purely delightful fantasies of Donald Oenslager, there was a definite transition of mood, a forceful authority, and a clear indication of a governing design in the artist's mind...

...When this drama of eternal beauty is finally set before us, we shall see an achievement which will bear the same relation to other dramatic works of today that Dante's own poem bears to the dwarfed efforts of those who came before him, and most of those who came after him...

...You find here a complete negation of inner or mystical form...

...Of course you can gather very little from the model itself of the movement, the color, the sound, and the mystery for which Mr...

...The genius of a truly great artist—a Duse, for example—can often convey far more by a look or gesture than by any of the spoken lines of a play...

...A NEW LANGUAGE By R. DANA SKINNER T F YOU want to know what all the talk about new ** art in the modern theatre means, don't drop in casually at the International Theatre Exposition now being held in the Steinway Building in New York...

...The summit of achievement in this group is the model for the magnificent Dante project by Norman Bel Geddes for the staging of a Divine Comedy drama...

...But if you have the time and the urge to make a real study of the hundreds of exhibits, then the chances are that you will come away with a much clearer insight into a form of madness which every now and then attains the height of genius...

...The essence of the theatre is continuous motion...

...You see certain properties and scenery on the stage, but they are as literally dead in their feeling as the body without a soul...

...He has caught to an amazing measure the mystery of the summit of the thirteenth century...

...A casual glance will merely increase the mystery surrounding so much of the work which the younger theatre enthusiasts in all countries are doing...

...But there are other cases in which I am sure that even the most carefully worked out schemes of lighting and group movement would never bring that sense of inner design, patent in every project which a man like Mr...

...I have always found it interesting to approach the work of the artists of the modern theatre with the feeling that they are trying, through the use of color and design, to convey to an audience emotions which words alone, and the work of actors, cannot fully express...

...I found myself returning to the American room at frequent intervals for a breath of fresh air...

...It is quite possible that in many of the sets in the European section, the apparent lack of design and form might be compensated in the plan of the artist by the groupings of actors and the careful use of lighting effects...

...Just as there is a language of music before which bare words must wither, so there is a language of emotion or feeling too great for verbal utterance...

...In a second section, you will find settings which have no apparent relation to realism, but which have an unmistakable inner form and harmony, so that in a rather mysterious way they convey the true feeling of a scene or situation without pinning that scene down to the particular details of any one time or place...

...Chaos is magnified...

...So to this extent, it is only fair to reserve judgment on the more promising part of the foreign exhibit...

...On the whole, the destructive forces are far less apparent in the American section of the exhibit than in the European...

...It is almost as difficult without the presence of actors and lighting to appraise work of this sort as it is to come into a cold and unlighted theatre between performances...

...Geddes has planned in the finished production...

...Naturally, this strikes one as entirely out of balance...

...You will find stage settings that are merely a simplification of the old realism, often accompanied by the greatly enhanced beauty which simplicity lends...

...In this project, Mr...

...Even where the work of the Americans showed complete abandonment of realism in favor of designs that merely suggested mood or fantasy, I felt and could usually, after a little study, trace out the form and coherence which gave the work beauty and an authentic quality...

...The great object of those who have departed from photographically realistic stage setting is to create a similar language of feeling through the use of color, design, movement and light...

...You can divide the work at the present exposition roughly into three sections...

...Here is something conceived on a scale commensurate with the sublime power of Dante's own work...

...But again I must come back to the one work of sheer genius in the exhibit—the Dante project...

...This means the rumor of evil in art...

...Or it might be that the chief groupings of actors in brilliantly colored costumes would always be arranged on the black side of the stage...