THE THEATRE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17251, 19 August 1916, Page 12

THE THEATRE.

(By Cmiccs.) Of late years, indeed, the musical critic has become on important factor in the shaping of musical appreciation, not only on the Continent, but in Eng- - land and the United States, where the public taste has been influenced to a degree not paralleled in any other country. The distinguished .English critic, Ernest Newman, expresses his ‘ opinion, in the London “Musical Times," that “newspapers in the future will keep a critic, not for tho sake of ' tho composers and performers, hut for the sake of flic critic; that is to say, *

it will be his business to interest tho public in his own views of musio as an art. He will choose his own subject, and choose it where lio will; ho 'will go to xamf a concert and preserve a stony silence about everything ho heapd there, for tho simple reason that none of it was out of tbo ordinary even t* bo worth mentioning; and ho will take his theme from some happening, that to the composers and performers engaged in the concert may seem a matter of little importance. Ho will, in a word, put the crowd of ordinary composers and performers in their proper places. If they are really big people, ho will talk about them and what they have done; if they are only ordinary people—and nine-tenths oi them are no moro than that—ho will as little dream of discussing them, or even mentioning them, as he would ot writing half a column on tlie restaurant cook, who was answerable for his dinner.”

Few people are aware that one of George Bernard Shaw’s greatest successes, “ John Bull's Other Island, was practically written at the instance of the Irish players with whom Miss Sara Allgood was connected for nearly ten years in Great Britain and Amer-, ica- Miss Allgood, who is making a success in “Beg o’ My Heart” at the King’s Theatre, Melbourne,' mentioned the fact of Shaw’s interest in thenmovement, when commenting on the work of the Irish Players the other day. It was the energetic poet and dramatist, B. Yeats, who __ asked Shaw to write a play for production at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. “John Bull’s Other Island," oontaming, striking portraits of an average Englishman and a modern Irishman, was the result of Shaw’s effort, but, unfqrtMuately, it involved a degree, of staging beyond the meagre resources of tho Irish Players at the Abbey. Much to his disappointment, Shaw had to got the play produced in London, whore, somewhat to hia surprise, it was an immense success.

Major Erio Benson, King’s Royal Rifles, son of Sir Frank Benson, was married early in July, at St Andrew s, Westminster, to Miss Muriel Taylor? daughter of the late Mr Richard Taylor, of Berkeley Sqfaaro.

Sir Herbert Tree caused something of a. sensation in America with his performance of Shylock, and tho Press was enthusiastic in. praise. In.. Shylock,” wrote one appreciative critic, “there comes to life one of- Shakespeare’s most complex creatures. And. as the sun’s rays reveal every shade., colour and mood of the diamond, tins interpreter lays bare to our view every one of tho innumerable twists and turns in Shylock’s intricate character. But all the critic* were not opinion. One writer said 1 “ Shako'speare’s plays fall into two classes: those written bv Shakespeare and those interpreted by Sir Herbert' Tree.”

Canadians have been discussing in the newspapers tho propriety of having the Scripture lessons read in churches by trained elocutionists—and real actors —in the more important places or worship. . This brings to mind. tl)c story of an actor who was once asked to read the lessons’. When he had done so, the rector asked him how it was thasi) his <the aoffior’s) residing made-so much more of an impression on tho hearers than his own did? “ l suppose,” said the actor, “it is because I read it as if I .believed it—l am aooustomed to declaiming fictioii as if it were true, while you read truth as if it were fiction.” I have heard (says a party to the discussion) that when Sir Henry Irving went to Oxford to receive his honorary LL.D., ho was asked to perform a similar office in one of the college chapols. Of course, if he had chosen, he could have adopted for the nonce, the conventional clerical manner. His histrionic abilities would have enabled him to read the lessons just like a clergyman. Instead of this, however, he read the Old Testament lesson as if it were a scene in, a play, in such a dramatic fashion as to product a great sensation among his hearers. It was n selection from ono ,of the historical books—l forget which—and there were characters in it, and some dialogue. And out of the dimness of the ancient past Irving made these characters stand forth, as. if they were men of to-day. I have been told that those who "were there will never forget the impression produced.

The “Sydney Daily Telegraph” prints tho following:—“ls tho .-American public essentially clean-minded — or is it. not?” demands a magazine, venturing forth, in. America—where the “movies” have become so generally popular as to be a distinct menace to the legitimate stage—in a’crusade against the suggestive motion picture. “Are thoso of us who are building on tho assumption that tho American people want clean literature and clean motion pictures, building on rock or on sand? Is the purveyor of suggestive pictures appealing to a minority, and if so, is that minority diminishing or increasing?. If only to a minority, is not the time eomo when tho great, clean-minded majority of the people ought to discover its strength and put itself on record unmistakably P” The pertinent queries were put in May, and by August 19,000 recruits had joined in the campaign, which will evidently need to do some tall fighting. One prominent film manufacturer, in reply, said that instead of finding that 95 per cont of his theatre owners favoured clean pictures, ho discovered that si least half , and maybe 60 per cent, wanted the pictures to be “risque,” which was a French wav of saying “suggestive.” Another film manufacturer, who led tho fight for clean motion pictures, found himself almost banished from certain territories because of the demand for pictures of the other type. Mothers' clubs, fathers” clubs, and teachers’ associations arc signing the campaign coupon, and tho magazines, whose readers are chiefly feminine, makes an appeal to all women who care about the morals of tho future generations to como forward and band themselves with the crusaders against pictured “ graft ’’ and immorality.