An Honest Theatre
AN HONEST THEATRE AT A time when public protests against the aber- rations of the theatre are so numerous and forceful, it is pleasant to applaud a dramatic venture which deserves imitation as well...
...If one may credit the London Tablet, these Roswithians have already (notwithstanding their archaic and somewhat formidable name) manifested great progress and enthusiasm...
...Because Bernard Shaw, like Shakespeare, is a popular figure by reason of college courses and public libraries, his plays are now box-office successes...
...Almost everybody concedes the value of the repertory idea : it has a way of fanning the classics into life, and can itself reveal the elasticity and mobility of life...
...The magnitude of the program recently staged at Yale University on behalf of amateur and community theatricals, certainly indicates the grip which this movement has upon American devotees of dramatic art...
...The Roswitha Society, for instance, is a group of amateurs who endeavor to interpret original plays in a spirit of unaffected piety...
...AN HONEST THEATRE AT A time when public protests against the aber- rations of the theatre are so numerous and forceful, it is pleasant to applaud a dramatic venture which deserves imitation as well as encouragement...
...One is actually astonished to see how victoriously a company which is not free from a certain amateurishness of manner can go from the sombre seriousness of Ibsen to the delightful idyllic tenderness of Martinez Sierra...
...But the great urge forward still awaits an impetus...
...At all events, it ought to prove that organizations like the successful inter-confessional Biihnenvolksbund, which has done such excellent work in Germany, can be established in the United States...
...Can this come from the little theatre movement...
...It seems to have gained in vitality and momentum during recent years—to have shaken off some of that enfeebling concern with the merely devastating and the merely macabre which for a long while characterized it...
...One may legitimately hope that some day it will become more than an outlet for stage-struck artistic temperaments, and that it will then evince a healthy masculine interest in those primal sources of popular life of which religion is one...
...Miss Eva Le Gallienne, proving once again that the practical sense of women finds it easy to achieve things seemingly impossible, has made the Civic Repertory Theatre synonymous with pleasant evenings and more than usually significant drama...
...Very likely the growing habit of reading plays, as one reads other literature, has led a great many people to take the theatre seriously...
...If more people formed the habit of reading Claudel, Weismantel or even Housman, the production of their great dramas might be more successfully undertaken...
...and a few commentators go so far as to believe that a kindred movement will arise in the country of the York mysteries...
...Agencies such as this always appear in response to a popular demand...
...You can sit in the somewhat antiquated confines of New York's old Fourteenth Street Theatre and wonder what has happened overnight to transfigure the now relatively blatant art of drama into a vibrant poetic magic which almost obscures the fascination of stars and glaring Broadway signs...
...It is easy to comb various literatures for masterpieces or less, but it is difficult to realize them in a way calculated to enkindle the enthusiasm of audiences...
...Reports indicate that performances of some of his plays have been greeted with unusual success...
...From another point of view, Miss Le Gallienne's achievement may be considered a hopeful sign of 426 American artistic maturity...
...Meanwhile, it is encouraging to note that M. Gheon, the tireless leader of the Paris Compagnons de Notre Dame, has been kindling fire in England...
...This demand has been increasing, so there is real hope for the future...
...But beyond all mere proprietorship of the idea, Miss Le Gallienne has realized a fine, plastic expression...
...Then it might also be possible to establish, at least in one or two cities, religious repertory theatres having something of the attractiveness and intelligence of Miss Le Gallienne's stage...
...Favorable omens may be seen in various announcements of collegiate dramatic clubs, in the continuing local success of such plays as Harry Lee's Saint Francis, and in a number of other things...
...Will something of the same sort ever reach America...
...It might be difficult to establish repertory theatres elsewhere than in New York, even if the standard of excellence were considerably lowered...
...But such theatres would have a better chance of success now than they could have claimed a decade ago...
...It might be profitable to meditate this point a little in connection with the often ventured plea for a vigorous religious theatre in the United States...
Vol. 5 • February 1927 • No. 16
