NATIONAL THEATRE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 55, 2 September 1937, Page 22

NATIONAL THEATRE

PROGRESS OF SCHEME

SITE IN SOUTH KENSINGTON

NOT WITHOUTiCRITICS

(From "The Post's" rteprosentatlve.) LONDON, August 7.

The advance towards a National Theatre in London by the selection of a site in Cromwell Gardens, South Kensington, has ;*wvi?ced a spate of criticism, chiefly ftl>.% managers, producers, and actors. Some consider that such a theatre would be academic and dull, that it would be a sheer waste of money, and that there is no popular demand for it. A particular objection is that the site selected is out of place. The National Theatre Committee, however, remains unconcerned, and is proceeding with its plans. , Actually it has taken 29 years to reach the present stage, dating from the 1908 meeting which appointed the committee. Sir Carl Meyer gave £70 000 towards the fund which now reaches some £150,000, of which about half has been spent on the site. It is probable that the public will be asked to subscribe to a building fund shortly. It is hoped that the site will be cleared by the end of the year. The Earl of Lytton, chairman of the committee, has stated that he does not intend to appeal to *c Government tor help in the building of the theatre but he does not abandon the hope of Government subsidy at a later stage He visualises Government representation on the governing body and an annual grant. The tentative scheme for running the theatre is on the lines of repertory, producing some new plays, Shakespeare, revivals^ of "whatever is vital in British drama, and translations of representative forei LordaLytton has replied to the crrtU cisms which consider the site toJae "completely out of place." "People will always have opinions," ho said, and tney are perfectly entitled to, expre-t them. But nobody is entitled to say that the National Theatre will fail, because that will depend on management, and we have good management, good production, 'and good plays. No site pleases everybody, and if you are going out of theatreland, Cromwell Gardens, South Kensington, is as^good a* any because London is moving westwards Most West EM theatregoers live there, and for the circle, gallery, and pit people there is firstrate communication."

G. B. SHAW'S VIEWS,

Among" the chief advocates on the theatre side is G. B. Shaw, who has been on the committee since its laception. His comment was: At last we have arrived at the point of buying a site for the theatre. Now we have to put a theatre on it, ano then we, shall have to raise a fund to endow it. We shall have to make further appeals to the public for money for both objects. Ido not suppose we shall get anything, much in this country, where they take, no interest m the theatre. Perhaps America will come to the rescue. But we can hardly expect Americans to do apy^ofViw they have done by practically building ths Shakespeare Memorial Theatre ot Stratford-on-Avon. Still, America is Americanising England pretty, fast,'so they may do this job for us as well. "I still think there is a need for a National Theatre in London. We do want a theatre which is to some extent a'national monument, and which is independent of commercial success. People who write serious drama cannc* expect to' make fortunes on the stage. They go to the manufacturers of conventional melodrama, who nowadays nave been largely knocked out by the cinema; I myself am no exception to the rule. The papers have got*into the habit of. referring to me as almost a millionaire, but- that is not true. ' - "What 1 nave got out of the theatre is nothing compared with what other people have got, whose line has been more popular, i have, of course, the consolation that the plays which make the most money have short lives, whertas my plays are immortal, ana will never die," ,-j :,■ Mr. John Gielgud, the actor and manager, sai<J: "I never thought in the past that there was any need /tor a national theatre. - But now that there is apparently public demand for it, it has my whole-hearted support."

OF A CONTRARY OPINION

Mr, Alex L. Rea, a vice-president of th<; Society of West End Theatre managers, and treasurer of the British Drama League, said that he did not be* lieve in any sort of national theatre, "it must be an academic thing which will not do any good," he said, "although it cannot do much harm. I have always thought that it is bound to be a dull affair, very conventional and very safe., The English theatre has shown more virility than any other theatre in the world without possessing a National Theatre. Surveyed over a Jong period, our plays and playwrights predominate above any, and our standard of acting is as high as anywhere. What need can a National Theatre fulfil ,which is not al-> ready supplied?" Mr. Firth Shepherd, who has had many years of theatrical management in London and elsewhere, said: "The London playgoing public has definite well-grounded tastes of its own, and wants no grandmotherly or schoolmasterly guidance from people, who often do not belong to the theatrelitterateurs, 'scholars, pedants, or vague uplift idealists. The soundness of I its taste has been proved over and over again. It is quick to "recognise anything of outstanding merit. Ido not.believe the National Theatre project can possibly succeed."