AMERICAN PLAYS DEFENDED,

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19204, 21 June 1924, Page 19

AMERICAN PLAYS DEFENDED,

There should he some ono logical reason why so many American plays rail in .London. In reality there are a variety ot reasons; curious, unnamed prejudices and convictions; latent, perhaps submerged, national tastes and differences. And yet, simmered down to a fundamental, the great basic reason, the salient motif of the failure, eeema to me to resolve itself into a question of national psychology. As an American, steeped in and loving American drama, comprehending it as only an American can (writes Irma Krat in the Daily Telegraph), I lind that the two nations aie as varied in theatrical tastes as they are different in psychology. To the Englishman raw emotion spells crude art, gaucherie, the symbols of the bounder, whereas the American, natural, naive, exuberant, delights in the quick, impulsive outpourings of soul and mind and heart. We in America naturally gravitate towards the intense, the emotional; the sharp, swift contrasts of wealth and poverty; of struggle and success; of vivid sensation; of the rich, often raw, emotions arising from our economic struggle—the story of a gigantic trust or combine; the skill of a great business man, a criminal, or the startling career of a film star or society leader. The romance of a waitress or a shop girl delights us; we thrill to the achievements of an East-side Jew, who has accomplished a tremendous business combine and humiliated a clique against him. It is life, life that we want; the dramas based on actual situations and conditions. As you English desire your subtle society drama, mirroring the intrigues of country houses or the skilled asides of the tea table; a« you delight in seeing “Your Betters” or ‘‘The Likes of Her," so are we no less normal in our appreciation of “Anna Christie,” “Get-rich-quick V» ailingford,” or “Potash and Perlmutter.” “Anna Christie” was to us not only a magnificent study of a class, but a real and throbbing human being, whom we dared not neglect or cease to show our interest in. It is perhaps guile normal also that Englishmen should not be concerned with the rise of “Get-rioh-quick Wallingford,” his problems on achieving sudden wealth, his social and his family life. He does not exist as a class in England. Our Potashes and our Pcrlmutters are also a negligible quantity over here. But before you pass your final judgments upon our plays and players . . .

give a thought, I pray you, to such tremendous dramas as “ The Hairy Ape,” “ The Basics 4 Wav." “The Lion and the Mouse,” “Sun-Tin,” “The Shame Woman,” "Diff-rent,” and “The National Anthem.”