MAX REINHARDT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1341, 19 January 1912, Page 2

MAX REINHARDT.

« ■ A GREAT STAGE PRODUCER AND HIS ART. LEADER OF THE SECESSIONISTS. A good deal has been heard lately of Hen- Max Reiuhardt, the takmted German producer of plays, and the leader of a new idea in stage management. He is the head and front of what has been called the "Secessionist" movement in Germany, and as such lias made a sensation so great that London has cried aloud for him, anil what London wants she generally gets—hence the cable messages of the, startling production of "The Miracle" at the Coliseum at Christmas time, and now Sophocles' Greek drama "Oedipus," the news of which production was cabled the other day. The Secessionists. What are the Secessionists? What do they believe and how do they put their theories into practice? As the Secessionists in the pure arts broko away from the conventional, historical restrictions, so the Secessionists in dramatic art are breaking away from the "literary drama," the. purely narrative plays of the early eighties, aud the later problem and genre, plays with a so-called: moral, historical, social, religious or ethical purpose. T'iiey want dramatic art for the sake of dramatic art—not the sake of preaching it moral, saving a soul, exploiting a theory, or explaining a mental process. As the painters, the sculptors, the architects, want pure art, tree from the shackles of historical rcvoreuco and the imitation of the work of centuries past, which has no practical or artistic value in present times, and which hinder the artist from expressing himself and the age in tyhieh ho lives, so the actors want a pure, an absolute .dramatic art, unhampered by the "literary" demands of another age, another time. To them the manner ot presentation is of infinite more value' than the matter presented. 1 no Secessionists believe that the stage derives its power, not through the position it takes in regard to the fundamental problems u£ life, but through the artistic form in which it presents these problems. In short, it is the controversy of art for art's sake brought upon the ' stage. Appreciation for the beautiful and artistic is. not a class matter, thinks Max Rriuhurdl', but a matter of individual temperament, just like a capacity for work, a jealous nature, or a sense of rvtlim. ' That is why lie wants to have a theatre big enough to sear 5000, wherein . the expensive seats for the exclusive fewwill help to pay for the cheaper seats for- the pleasure-hungry many. To fulfil this idea there is being built for him, an arena-theatre in Berlin and another in Munich, the forerunners of others to be erected in all the larger cities of Germany. The stage . will l>e in the centre, so that every scene will be visible from all sides—hence his revolution in scenery: "Oedipus." ; The trial piece, "Oedipus," was given in a circus in Berlin, of which ,one end was occupied by the stage proper, presenting a. massive Greek palace, with high steps leading down into the ring. About ■'this,, on three sides, sat the audience. There was no curtain, there were no footlights. "The monumental' drama cannot bear the trappings of the ordinary stage," says George Fuchs. "It is too big—the usual stage tricks fail absolutely in their.effect her*. Audience and actors form one big community." That is why, when one arrives, one may see all -tlie dramatic paraphernalia there is, and may spend the time before the play begins in guessing what they are going to do with it. However, one usually guesses wrong, as Reiulmrdt's performances are always full of surprises. The first surprise in "Oedipus" was to fiiid oneself in Egyptian darkness, out of which rang, clear and loud, a clarion .trumpet-call. Then - four litho youths, clad in the altogether, and bearing their .torches on high, ran out from the centre entrant's opposite the stage, up the vast steps, to kindle the calcium lights, resembling ancient altar fires that stand at either side of the palace. Whore and how these youths llien disappear, one doesn't notice, as the, attention is distracted by a rumbling that is neither thunder nor the rolling of nine-pins! A rumbling that has too many tones, too ninny dissonances to be mechanical; louder it grows, nearer it comes, and with it a jostling, seething gray mass of human beings that pours into the arena through three entrances. Their inarticulate cries and wails grow more intense; pierced here and there by the shrieks of a woman or the groan of a man's voice, they finally concentrate into the insistent demands for "Oedipus." It is the plague-ridden people of Thebes, ccmiuto beg for succor at the palace of tie King. Their voices penetrate through the heavy palace walls-Oedipus himself comes out to answer them. Hand over eyes, he steps gut upon the platform before his door aud gar.es into the darkness ot the pit in search of the author of his summons. Thus they discourse, the King, and his people, he in his majestv towering above them, they in their misery standing below, ne promises them aid"; .they turn and leave him, murinnriii" encouragement and hope the one and" the other; the strong carrving tho weak, the less afflicted supporting- the dying. Out ot (he darkness into which they disappear comes all the ill-fortune that besets Oeclipus, bit by bit, until finally, overwhelmed by an accumulation of tragedies, blind powerless, and deserted, ho is driven into the, darkness himself, followed bv th». same mob, which dares not even'touch him now, for fear of pollution. "A Puppet of Fate." This tragedy of a puppet of fate who, m spite of the fact that he unknowingly •murdered his father and married his mother, must bear the punishment meted , out..for such crime.?, must be. presented on a large scale in order that it mav exert its full power and have its entire effect. Reinhardt's production is oit» of tho "deed," not the "word." The t»xt is secondary. Although every word whether it was spoken by a member of the mob, one of the chorus, or a princi--1 pal, could be heard on a twenty-fivc-ccnt seat under the roof of the circus. It was not of the words the holder of that seat though .as he left the performance, but of the series of pictures he had seen. There was the scene with the mob, with its s«a of arms outstretched first to Oedipus, then , to his brother-in-law, Crcon, who hadcomo - with tho answer of tho oracle, followed > by the scene with the seer, Tcirosi;<s. i A wonderful, majestic old man, iti iiowing ! white, beard and flowing white gown, led ; through the arena by a mere, slip of a | graceful lad clad in ancient scantiness, it presented a marked contrast in its siinpli- , city and quiet In Lho stormy scene that had preceded it. There were the several scenes.with the classic chorus, twenty odd venerable sires who came and went through tho side entrances as noiselesslv as tho mob was noisy in its coining anil going. Reiuhardt took the liberty-and herein lies his seeessionism—of changing the text j to suit modern ideas of dramatic art, in- ; stead of adhering religiously to the old. | lho words of the chorus he divided, giving various lines to separate members, instead of having them say everything in . unison. In the Greek original, a servant of tho Queen recounts at great length tho entire tale of her death, the grief of her ~ son, Oedipus, his self-destructing act of blinding his eyes. "Told in Scraps." In the present version of Hugo von Hofmunnsthal, this is told in scraps by the frightened, hysterical handmaidens of the Queen as described above. He made these changes in order to break the monotony, to heighten the dramatic effect. Ho dues not give the piny with masks or leggings, as the ancients presented it; he does not maintain the sacral style in all its rigid simplicity, where he dose not regard it. as fit, and—above all—as pleasing to the modern audience. One cannot say whether he has added the advantages (if modern dramatic technique to the ancient methods of production, or whether he has simplified modern methods, freed I hem from the burdens of petty detail by introducing into them the largeness of conrept exemplified on the classic stage, but. ccrlain it is that he has blended the two indisputably well. The important consideration is' that he has maintained the dramatic idea of the whole, that he has made lho awful tragedy of "Oedipus" real and kept intact the immensity of its conception. Tho same is true of Reinhardt's Shakespearean productions. He does not give

those plays as tlicir author gave Ihoin, with negligible scenery, unci sie;iis for decoration anil lucidity, nor does he adhero to (he Shakespearean stage traditions that have accumulated through' (he centuries. Jlo utilises the best of each method—the old and the now—in so far as it helps him to make his production artistic. His presentations are historically correct, but if "correctness" means anything ugly or i'rotcsqun or unsymmetiicul, it is omitted or modified. Especially is this true of the costumes. These he reduces, as far as possible,.. to. an "ideal costume"—one that suggests the outline of the fashion it represents, bill: not its details. Frills and furbelows detract from the harmonious, artistic effect of the whole. Neither a painter nor a sculptor perpetuates the moods of fashion—whv should the'dramatic artist? If "just plain drapery" will do, it is best; if n jerkin made of one piece and a doublet and hose suffices for the men, so much the belter; if, however, as in "Don Carlos," there must be crinoline skirts, then let there be.crinoline skirts, but simple, and correct and as undecorated as possible. Here it is proverbial that "Bcautv unadorned is adorned the most."