THE PUBLIC TASTE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 59, 11 March 1937, Page 4

THE PUBLIC TASTE

REVEALED IN THEATRE

IS GREAT ACTING WANTED?

EVIDENCE IN. LONDON

Elisabeth Bergner has recently given London, for the second time since - she came here to" live, an exquisite performance in a part which" makes ho very great demand oh her powers. If hearsay evidence speaks true, she can do far bigger things than we have yet seen her do, writes W." A. Darlington in the. "Daily Telegraph." .

Yet; so far as the general public, is concerned, she has already done all that is necessary to establish herself. She was a popular idol.from the moment when, as the pathetic waif Gemma Jones, she stepped on to the stage of the Apollo Theatre three years ago. And Ido not think that anybody will doubt that she could remain a popular idol for ever, so long as dramatists continued to supply her with parts in which her special brand of wistful charm could be brought into play. In other words, the great playgoing public is, not interested in Elisabeth Bergner's possibilities, as. an. actress; it is content to worship at the shrine of her glamorous personality. This.leads me to ask once again the question'so often judged unanswerable ' —What does the public; "want when it goes to the theatre? ■ :,-. . ,\ Does it want great acting, or does it prefer personality ,'• with or .-.without histrionic competence? Is it. interested in plays?. Has-it any. real-judgment, orcan it be led by the nose? -: Does it know what it wants?. . . -~ .... THE ONLY WAY OUT. The last, of, these questions is ■ the only one that can be' answered precisely, and that in the negative.... , The public 'does' not know,what, it wants; it never has known,! it ■ never will, it never can know. And why? Because it has.no fixed standards of taste, and the only: way in which' it'can: find out what it likes is by the safe but costly method of trial and error. .;■;'■-. The proof, of. this sort.of pudding is most certainly the eating... Managers have often good reason to know : ;that the' public has an appetite as capricious as-a spoilt child's; they-must simply prepare their puddings and,:hope for the best, finding consolation and; encouragement in'the thought-that-every sort of pudding has an equal chance and that every dog has his day. : Having established, I hope to everybody's satisfaction, that -any question concerning the public's wants is unanswerable, I will now proceed to answer it. The public wants one thing and one thing only when it goes to the theatre —its moneys worth. I do not believe that the ordinary playgoer ever bothers his head about the -quality of the player or the play he goes to see. They may be great, or good, or merely successful—it is all one to him. , He has adventured quite a considerable number of his hardearned shillings on a visit to the theatre; and if the money has not been wasted he is pleased, and he tells his friends that they, too, may safely venture their money in the same theatre. „ "WHAT'S A GOOD SHOW?" I meet many such playgoers in the ordinary way, in clubs and places where they golf. Generally they ask me—as' is natural—for advice. The stock form of their inquiry is, '"What's a'good show to see?" When I' reply, "Well,\vhat sort of show do you'like?" .they' say, as "often' as hot, "Oh, I don't much mind! Anything that's good." It is true that at this point some of them remember suddenly that a critic is apt to be a little highbrow; and add hurriedly, "Not too heavy, of course," or words to that effect. But the majority make no such reservations. They are equally ready to see "Parnell," or "Call It a Day," or "Swing Along," provided-they can get some assurance that their time and their money will not be wasted. .. ■. . ■ They are not concerned with the relative artistic values of these plays, or of the actors and actresses who appear in them. They leave that sort of thing to me and any others who are interested. Please observe that I am not .attempting to reprove the ordinary playgoer for his attitude. 111 am not groaning at his lack of taste or'discrimination, or saying that this is a specially soulless age, or any nonsense of that sort. AlL..through history I find evidence that the same thing was going on— that the general.playgoing public considered drama simply from the point of view of its entertainment value, and did not interest itself at all in the question of art. Probably this was not true of Athens in the great age— but that age did not last very long; and later-'on- Athens became notorious for its craze for novelty/ ' - Rome very certainly did not "worry about art when entertainment was to be had. There is a story—l do not know where I read it, but I am pretty sure that it was in a tome by some unimpeachable scholar —that on the occasion of the first night of one of Terence's comedies a rumour went round that there was a gladiatorial show at the other end of the town. The audience promptly left in a body. ' The rank and file of the%Elizabethans were equally incapable of loving the highest when they saw it. Quite impervious to the fact that great. dramatic art was being introduced, to their notice almost continuously, they went to bear-baiting, or .cock-fighting, or Shakespeare's latest with cheerful impartiality.. And Pepys, that very typical ordinary . playgoer., demonstrates again and. again that in .the Restoration, just as before. and. since, the public wants nothing more nor less than.its moneys worth. This attitude accounts, of .course, for the drawing power of star performers. The presence in.the cast of Miss Bergner, or of John. G.ielgud-is a guarantee in itself that the money.,spent.will not be altogether wasted. So, for some, is the presence in the csst of a large number of young women with well-turned limbs and scanty clothing. It is safe for them to go to a theatre where these attractions are on view. It is not so safe to go to a certain theatre simply because the. play it houses is said to be a, good ; one. Plays that are,"good." may at the same time turn, out to be unpleasant, or. sad, or difficult to understand. All the same, every.now and then the casual playgoer gets it into his head that a certain play, has got to be visited, and he visits it firmly although there is not a single star in the cast. "The Dominant Sex" and "The Wind and the Rain" each had an enormous run, and "Anthony and Anna" is in its second year, and still going strong. All three were well cast and cleverly acted; but they had. not a star performer between them. THREE TO ONE MAJORITY. I have said that the big casual public cares nothing about relative artistic values. That statement hardly needs proving—but it can be illustrated very clearly. The public went 155 times to the New Theatre to'see John Gielgud's "Hamlet"; it went 472 times to see his "Richard of Bordeaux." It would probably not have denied that William Shakespeare is a greater author than - "Gordon Daviot"; but in actual practice it cast a 3-to-one vote in favour of Miss "Daviot." So far as the big public is concerned,