"THE BLUE BIRD."

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 725, 26 January 1910, Page 8

"THE BLUE BIRD."

MAETEBLINCK'S BRILLIANT FANTASY.

! About a 'month ago cable hews was received of tliri great success achieved- in London of the production in English of Maeterlinck's dream . play, . "The. > Bine Bird." The "Sydney Morning Herald's" London correspondent, writing of the play,, says:— .. . v •'

; The Blue Bird is . Happiness/ and the little boy Tyltyl and the little girl Mytyl, who go. in search of it, are as symbolic as are. their discoveries in the dreamland through which they wander. . Touchingly: symbolic are those discoveries, especially of d power to draw tears, and to compel laughter, and to .wake sweet wonder, for the • children and their comijanions, and their'- journeyings, are. : sho'wn by; the magician Maeterlinck, -.seer .by right divine of the vision splendid, ana painter of word pictures as, exquisite as the dreams of which they tell. This time the dream is of fairyland, and it has been revealed to us this week at the Hay-, market Theatre' by favour. of Mr." Herbert Trench's repertory scheme. Staged'and costumed with the restrained beauty *of effect already shown in "King Lear, to be part of the Haymarket intention, London sees' .M; "Maeterlinck's * famous fairy ; t play under delightful * conditions. Its nistory is, easily stated. It was first produced at Moscow a year or two ago. It is being played at this 'moment by 59-provincial companies in Russia.' Tyltyl and Mytyl are - woodcutter's children. They are ;nsited on Christmas Eve by a, fairy who wants a blue bird for the cure of a sick child. She gives. the boy Tyltyl a diamond to wear i;i his cap. It is ; the gift we all need-rthat of 6eeing • things as they really, are. His :first pressure of. it, indeed,', fills the children's room with the souls of all the common; things about them. The furniture becomes resplendent, the face of the clock smiles, its doors ; : open, and a • group of laughing girls, - who are : the Hours of the children's life, dance : about them, their dog .and cat wake .up- and begin to talk to them. Light 'appears, a radiant figure, and even the souls of the; milk,, and the bread, and the/sugar take appropriately, humorous shape; and the fire comes to. life, and -the watersprings up, and at once begins to quarrel with it ;

In due course tho children set out upon' their- quest for. the bird,-' with nT > escort; of - these' souls of things and-pre-ceded by. Light. They come first to. the ,-Land of Memory, where the ♦lours danoe : again, but this.'time dimly.'and* in: shadow. ■ And here are tbpir grandparents, Gaffer and Gammer, and their (lead. brothers and sisters, only -they know nothing of death. Generally they "are happily ; asleep, but they always waken when someone 1 on earth' thinks ,of them.There is a joyful meeting hare, and some moving passages occur, and when the ohudren- leave" for their journeyings qtherwhere the; scene fades, and Gaffer and * Gammer and all tho 1 ittlo ones 'that were, faU asleep. Then, there is an amaz.ing: scene .in', the forest/ ..where the :souls of . all the -trees and animals, appear, and where the traitorous cat (M. Maeterlinck throughout'exalts the Dog and will have no good in the Cat) urges the trees to kill .the. chilcfren 'because their father., is a woodcutter., But they, are saved -by. the Dog, and go on again, led by Light, to,,a graveyard. They must search among' the, dead, they are told, . for, after all, the Bird maj[ be there.. So,a9.thficlock• Btrikes midnight, the boy comforts his shnnkmg sister . and conjures ;up 'thedead. The \rock, 1 , ana the. ground heaves,", and - thunder rolls, 'anddarkness falls. This is one of the. most beautiful effects ' I have ever seen, for .the; darkness rolls - away suddenly ■/ and the .graveyard is become a wonderfuT garden .of lillies, and massed- with the lovely - white flowers.: "Where are the dead?" asks Mytyl. ■ And her brother answers as the • our tain fall&-'-There'are no dead." That. is vory touching. ■■/ •• ;': . _ The .children then go 'on to, the Kingdom of the Fnture, which is a'beautiful, place, half hidden -in a curious: blue at- 1 mosphere." Here .play r the children, who are . yet unborn, and Tyltyl. and; Mytyl. move -amongst:, them,.' and maay s-jfrettiljp imaginative; things are. said. .One dhild 1 is' busy.: inventing -a Happiness-machine. Another isi to. bring ' joy; to- the 'earth by means .of ideas known only to-him.' Another is to . abolish injustice;, another' to , conquer death—and so ■ on,-, until- a-, great door ™ rolls back, and old -Time appears ' -with .his galley _of;the;Dawn,vand sum--mons the children, whose hour of: birth . Some want r to'.go. before their time;, some do ,not .want to go at alii' One stops on board -phly to rim. hack again. to fetoh .the box; of crimes he will have to commit' on earth;: another comes' n-ith- a little, .pot .containing :the: idea, he has_ for. enlightening crowds.;; Time com-: plains that there ■ are too..- many i'shep-; herds' and too many doctors amongst the ; batch, ■ and ;: too'. few'engineers, 'and only, one' honest - man, and he a not likely to, .live: 'long.:. At;-.last they' arasorted out/:and .the galley of the Dawn floats, away, and a .song of many voices steals across,..the:scene. : -.lt. is- the song, of ;the, mothers-wio. await their babes... . -Then the children go on to the.Palace of Night, a lady ; who;holds concealed'behihd doors sucS. unpleasant things ,' as ; wars and 'sicknesses—all' rather poorly themselves, bocauso 'of tho doctor's discovery of microbcs—savo • Cold-in-the-Head, who is. quite a. frisky person— and ; skeletons and, - phantoms, some-, what: decrepit, because- iio' one: : believes in them; any longer.' " 'Night' "has other and pleasanter companions, though will-o'-the-wisps, -'dews,'! nightingales,- .and, /most beautiful of all, the stars, who dance in : upon the , scene in the prettiest way. ... , One other door remains. Tyltyl throws it: open and 1 - there; at last, are hundreds of blue birds,flying about a golden fountain.' Tho children fall-upon them' and seize many of them;: Alas, they die -ijs 6oon 'as they are brought ■ into the light of day.. They; are the joys of night which vanish with the dawn. The children woop, for them, but the stars como and bend over the birds and they all come to life again .and ily off. . So the children part from . their, friends and go back home; their prescribed year: of journeying ended. -And then their mother wakens them-on Christmas morning—and it was all a dream. . Only Tyltyl really has a turtledove in an old cage, and, when a neighbour comes in to beg -it-for her :sick child and presently, returns to say that the child. is miraculously. cured, we see. that the Happiness , the children - soughtwas with them all the time.'. At the- very end, Tyltyl's bird flew away into the audience', and the little boy came down to the . footlights and called down to us—"lf any of you find it .please give it us back ; we,-shall need it;for;our happiness'*later oa" ■ -■