THE WORLD OF BOOKS.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18431, 11 July 1925, Page 13

THE WORLD OF BOOKS.

By A. H. Grinling,

HALF HOURS IN A LIBRARY.

(SPrCIALLT WEITTEK FOB "THX PBE3S.")

CXXI—ON SOME MODERN DRAMATISTS (3).

The evolution of the Modern Drama, has been marked not only by the healing of the divorce between poetry and the stage, but by the intensification of the realism which had as its exponent Ibsen. Realism has been defined as a drama that treats of life as we to-day know it, and which depends for its greatness on the success of its author in endowing it with qualities which lift it beyond to-day. Such qualities were revealed in tho Greek tragedies and again in the plays of Shakespeare. Ibsen canio at a time when it-was essential to remind playwrights of the great traditions of the stage: he made real life the dominant drama. There had arisen a generation of playgoers who de'fiantly declared that they went to the theatre only for the purpose of being amused; that they had plenty of real life at home; and this section of the community was catered for by a management who utilised the stage purely as a commercial medium and without any consideration for its glorious traditions. But the path so boldly blazed by Ibsen was speedily followed by several British dramatists, prominent amongst whom were George" Bernard Shaw and John Galsworthy.

To-day the names of the dramatists who count is legion; away in New Zealand only oohoes of the modern movement ever reach our shores; with occasionally a belated performance of some London success, which seems to promise well commercially. Amidst much that is bewildering, one of the best guides are Mr James Agate's volumes on "The Contemporary Iheatre," containing the dramatic notices he contributes from week to week to "The Sunday Times." The volumes for 1923 and 1924 lie before me as I write, and what a flood of light they cast on the theatrical world. For instance, in an article entitled "Mr Drinkwater and St. John Hankin" Mr Agate sets to work to controvert the very argument I have been at such wains to advance. The article is called forth by Mr Drinkwater's Introduction to the handsome two-volume edition of St. John Hankin's plays.

"The truth is," writes. Mr Drinkwater, "that the stage fell upon evil days, not because it divorced itself from life, but beeause it divorced itself from literature." Mr'Drinkwater goes on to declare that St. John Hankin lived and wrote at the beginning of a new dramatic movement, and that- his plays "are a valuable effort towards the" re-establishmeut of the union between drama and literature. . . . Those of us who believe that the stage cannot- regain its full vigour until it has rediscovered, poetry as its natural expression, find in Hankin and his three or four adventurous fellows invigorating' promise rather than fulfilment." On this point it is only fair to give Mr Agate* a hearing: Here it is time to call a halt. Poetic drama, between the covers of a book.—yes, on the staffe —no, or not until such time as our poets take to conceiving drama as something that happens later than the days of Beowulf. Let me confess that -whenever. I see the ■words "Poetic, Drama," my heart Binks. They ought to mean that Mr Alasefield is putting into the form of highest poignancy some human story like' that of the Widow in the Bye-Street. AVhat they mean in actual practice is that some vague soul has lost itself in the mists surrounding Boadicea. Positively I cannot find it in my heart to blame people who tell me that they cannot sit through modern poetic drama. Neither can .I. "Action is not essential to tho stage, but in its absence there must be some direct progression of idea or spiritual conflict that shall perform its office of holding the attention- of- an audience." In theory, admirable. But in practice'* Ibsen's plays are full of spiritual conflict; but how many people can.be got together in this country to test their power of holding attention 1 Action may not be essential to the stage, but the fact remains that-where it is lacking so, too, are the audiences.

These two views, while divergent, are not necessarily antagonistic. They represent opposite aspects and both call for consideration. It is a, hopeful sign th.it the poets are coming back to the stage: it is also a hopeful sign that playwrights are recognising that the dominant note of their drama must be real life. Presently the poetry in real life will be more fully recognised, where at present only reality without the poetry is to be seen and stressed, sometimes quite unpleasantly. In Mr Agate's volumes there is a section devoted to "Modern Plays," of which in tho 1923 collection there are foxirteen. Among these is mentioned' Miss .Dorothy Brandon's "The Outsider," one of the plays which the Russian actor, Maurice Moscoviteh, is at present oresenting in the Dominion. "Many things are said in this play," remarks Mr Agate, "which show a reverence- for nature to shock none but the vulgar ' mind Tho whole of the second act is a Daraphrase into Samuel Butler of all that Juliet whispers on the balcony. And if the insistence on sex is a trifle overdone, it must be looked upon as a backwash of that surge of emotion which went to the play's creation. The theme is one after Ibsen's own heart."-

Mr Agate's 1023 notices include "Anna Christi?," by Eugene O'Neill, who has been hailed in America as "The greatest living.tragic dramatist." This ptaywright calls for a chapter all to- himself;, it is sufficient here to say that he is the son of a well-known American actor (tne late James O'Neill), and that he bad risen_to fame during the decade after the War and this mainlv because of his-play Bevond the Horizon," which, staged in New York, had a successful .run, winning for its author the Pulitzer Prize of a thousand dollars as the best American nliv of 1020 He also won the Pulitzer PriL of 1922 with "Anna ChristieMr O'Neill's first attempts at playwriting were one-act pieces dealing mainly with the lot and life of seamen; they are little more than sketches and of a gruesome sort, In tact, in all of his wo-k Mr O'Neill carries realism to its fullest extent, and his plays, while certainly powerful, shock rather than please. This is particular y the ca e with "The Hairy Ape. Anna Christie" is a blend of the sea-playlet manner with the more finished.style of "Beyond the Horizon," and it remlta in a poignant little drama Mr Agate dubs it "a niiffhtv queer jumble— Conrad and Synfc 'and Dumas fds and tt »> a+ same time ne Huymans." At tnc »•»" , . - simple emotion.

Among other plays criticised by Mr » i ° ,it.ttp!) ond "The Insect Agate arc "8.U.8. and Masefield > 8 Play." besides All Jonn . "Melloney Holtspur. Conce n ng this latter plav he says: in V •-, „ fow . ft ?^liihthf tfei.that,^J.ftw brilliant exceptions, those . . mastered its expression have nothing to express. Conversely again, with a rew exceptions, our writers with something

(Continued at foot of next column.).

to say make the mistake of condescending to the theatre and under the plea of writing down, write badly. Mr Masefield's 'Melloney Holtspur,' though it is the product of a distinguished mind, is a bad play. It is lugubrious, it is morbid, and it is. unending in the garrulous way of intellectuals." I was particularly interested in the light thrown by Mr Agate upon the methods and work of Mr Nowell Coward.'My attention was first directed to this young playwright and actor by an article in the February issue of "The Adelphi," headed "The Significance of 'The Vortex,' " a play which made a great hit in London recently. Mr Agate says of "The Vortex":—"Well, hero is a piece which is the 'dernier cii' in the theatrical mode, 'ua peu schoking' perhaps, but not less popular on that account. The reception of the piece was a3 extravagant and sincere as any author would desire, and I should not bo surprised to learn that on the following morning Mr Coward had to engage a secretary to help him turn down, the offers. Brains must ultimately .come by their own, even in the theatre, and Mr Coward has brains to spare." Mr Agate admits that the atmosphero of the play is that of a "viciously silly and crazily perverted minority which makes a noise entirely disproportionate to its numbers." He then, in justifying Mr Coward, makes a curious comparison between Mr Coward's play, "Our Betters" by Mr Somerset Maugham, and a plav bV Mr Michael Aden,. "Dear Father'''

Mr Arlen's play is described as "an extravaganza on Modern Behaviour," and Mr Agate says "It will bo no defence of such plays as 'Our Betters' and 'The Vortex' to protest that a hundred years hence some critic will exhaust all the charm remaining to the English language to prove that Messrs Maugham and Coward did not mean what tliey sf-.i-d The proper question to ask will bo: Were these plays true to the tiny coteries with which they deal? Did they revolt twentieth century taste? The answer to the first question .will be Yes, to the second No. We dread no infection to-day from these 'scenie representations of disorder' .for the simple reason that disorder is shown to be what it is." Mr Agate continues: —

Mr -Wen's "Dear Father" is up another street, and the plea that onr grandchildren may come to accept it as a piece of fairy nonsense is inadmissible. Nonsense it may perhaps be; the point is that the surrounding air is, in Hamlet's phrase, "a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.'' It may be argued that Mr Arlen's characters are not more venal or more siliy than those iu the two plays mentioned prove. Agreed; but every piece of writing possesses, and cannot escape possessing, something which is the sum of all its implications. The total gesture of Mr Maugham's and Mr Coward's plays is that there is another and a better world outside the vicious circles of their castigation. Mr Arlen's gesture is to the contrary effect. "This is the world of today," it would seem to say, "and of all worlds it is the best possible." Never in Mr Arlen's piece do you hear the crack of the satirist's Whip, and not once is the back bared to the lash. . . .

Let there be no misunderstanding. I do not condemn the piece because its characters are immoral. Licentiousness has a place in art, but it must be shown for what it is. Mr Arlen's peop.e are not shown for what they arc, and I protest with all reasonable vigour against the implication that the father's indolent attachment is normal, that the daughter's capriciousness is the best of womanliness, that the family in this countrv is in a state of disintegration, that marriage has become a temporary affair of the bodv, and not an enduring state of the affections. To the general mass of English life this plav is untrue, and it contains no hint that i't is a satire at the expense of the exception. If I were undertaking Mr Arien . s de{e^ce i should plead imperfect assimilation of English -niceties both of speech and mind

Tins criticism will ser ve to illustrate the peculiar difficulties surrounding the development of modern drama In a concluding article I shall hope to gather up a few of the dropped threads and jjerkajDs reach a reasoned conclusion.