BERNARD SHAW ON THE THEATRE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 84, 6 October 1909, Page 4

BERNARD SHAW ON THE THEATRE.

In. & letter to The Times, appealing for support for the proposed ■ National Shakespeare Theatre, Mr. Bernard bhaw concludes in typical fashion:— "The theatre i s literally making tha minds of our urban populations to-day. Jt is a. huge factory of sentiment, of character, of points of honour, of conceptions of conduct., of -everything 'that finally determine* the destiny of a. nation. And y«t it is openly said that the theatre is only a place of amusement. It i, nothing bf the kind; a theatre is a place of culture, a plate where people learn how to think, act, and feel; mop important than all tho schools? m Christendom. A healthy Kinghshmun amuses himself in the field and in the society of his friends; the theatre can offer nothing in the way of amusement to compete with tho£ except vice; and at that it can easily > bo beaten by places that are nob theatres Would any sane man call the National Gallery or the British Museum a place of amusement? It is true that these institutions are commercial failures, just as Westminster Abbey is a commercial failure. And I sincerely hope that the National Theatre will bo an equally conspicuous and equally priceless commercial failure. It is with that view, in fact, that we aro asking ■?r? r of half a million, for it. Who speaks first?