THE DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE

THE DOOM OF THE DRAMA

BY ISRAEL ZANGWILL.

— - ---

DR. SAMUEL GUTTMAN

PACE NINE
— ---
TO ESTABLISH YIDDISH
THEATRE IN FRANKFORT

of it. Let us see what your success
Grand Rabbi, Dr. Cairo, foe years
looks like in cold print." The prac-
ago, this office has been vacant. The
NEW GRAND RABBI OF
tice sass indeed dismally discouraged
new Grand-Rabbi, Dr. Guttman, has
by the press, for, while the author
already served twenty years as a rabbi
was hoping his work before a more
Frankfort a. in.—From this city,
cultured bench of judges than dra-
Lemberg.—The Jewish rommun it y in Lemberg and is well-known for his Mr. Charas recently departed for
matic criticism provides, lie Mond his of Lemberg has elected Dr. Samuel ability as a speaker. lie is a man of Warsaw to engage a Jewish company
book ..linost invariably dismissed with Guttman the Grand-Rabbi of the city. magnetic personality and sympathetic of actors, and establish a permanent
the words: "Text of the play pro-
Es Cr since the death of the last character. • Yiddish theatre in Frankfort.
duced at the So - and - So Theater." You
could not even "publish and be
0 1:101= 1011=101= 01=0
damned." If, on the other hand, the 0120=110150====101:10=0=10= 1
0
0
play leis nut been produced, it was
not usually noticed at all, as my
O
friend, Mr. Sutro fennyd when. during 0
the exigencies of the war, he was
reduced to presenting his latest piece
of work, perhaps his best, through
the medium of type. "The published
play seem, to be the Cinderella of
0
literature," he C(11111)1 ■ 1111Cd to Ille.
0

LEMBERG, POLAND

I have long 'contemplated with a demonstrates success but merely the
benevolent skepticism the efforts and avoidence of failure, a hundred thou-
enthusiasms of my young friends, sand spectators will not carry you
who still believe that it is possible very long But Mr. Shaw has omitted
in a country which does not care for the most important item in the cat-
am and has no curiosity about life, culation. For "the first hundred thou-
to erect upon a paying basis a noble sand" must precipitate themselves iu
contemporary drama. Bow far those the first hundred days, nay, the sign
cynics arc right who reduce all his- of the rush must appear from the
tory, however high-Howe, to econo- moonlit of production. "Delays are
mics I will not pretend to determine. dangerous," says Beacon. But in the
But the economics basis of drama is, theater they are fatal. The I, isurely
unfortunately beyond question. The tespite during which a book may I du-
drama's laws the drama's patrons . rate taste, win appreciation and
give. "Anil since there is no sut- gather momentum, is impossible in a
ticient audience in England to pay fort theater, where at least a hundred
the drama as a line art, no line art rounds are oozing away every eve-
Ifut it HOW looks as if Cinderella
can there be, The occasional esploita- fling.
the hi rd-mind must not
0
Ow of Shakespeare is less a sign of on l y fi n d it se lf mirrored in thepia), may not 1,01 crouch in the kitchen. 0
My
publisher informs me that even
e
on
„
an
d
h
grace than of the dearth of a living it mos t di scover This al
Poetic drama The safe ani! obvious drawn theaterwards, "as the deer at live shillings net lie cannot, except
at a loss, add my latest—played to
resource of managements or actors breaks, as the steers breaks."
the uniform series;
t half-a-a
s which
lie has
aiming at classic rank of the remit.,
Now
hitherto
""""grenteD"
hut"
hitherto
publishe d
non of culture, Shakespeare but been
ho.esaei
pr llla tr ici rel utneeka.cit•ix ,t , i;i:titioletrhat_e And it seems unlikely that anybody its
0
serves to bar out still more effectually
""
ill pay tuore than tire shillings for
,
any attempt to replace or supplement
play w
its
ts comparaitvely small
his artistic coot ntion, ur to k•xress
p
could rely nu "bumper lotuses" at the
0
lint it amount ' of matter.
two Saturday performances.
the
now appears from an interview unit
Failing the improbable appearance
a manager that, by reason of the ris-
"1 ears of the modern, years
ing prices, a play will have to i o • of a millionaire who is also a Mae-
of the unperformed,"
As the Bible has become the ttem), I withdrawn. unless at every ii,o•frITIII- colas, the only agency on the horizon
i
•
.. Tlnc that may avert the doom of the
.. I .
,
of religion, so is Shakespeare the
gravity of the situ:train is obvious. dranta is Socialism with its State or 0
O
enemy of the British drama.
• It lowers still further the pos- municipal theaters, and even these N
Our daily dramatic critic—skim coin- Ad e b y extending the gni...lily of would ossify it. For it is impossible II
0
!tines erudition with his wit—has re-i spectators necessary to make both to suppose that Bolshevism, with its 0
unexcelled preparation. We
A delightful place to bring
produced in a lecture delivered at the: olds meet. And if relief Is sought m presumption of a world made perfect
maintain our own frog pond
your family and friends. Pri•
and chicken farm.
Royal Institution, M. Sarcey's list Lf higher prices, the public may be still at last, would he less asphyxiating to
vats parties may arrange for
theatrical pamphlets Oil the Decline of more to the cinema, with its smaller the breadth of new life than the ex-
Free Phone for Table
exclusive service by mail or
the French Theater. It would appear demand on the pocket as on brain. fisting censorship. Art cannot be pro-
Reservations—
phone.
that every few years since 1768 a Between this Scylla and Charybdis &teed tinder dictation, even the dicta-
Call Dearborn 83. Shook's Famous Jazz Band Every Evening. Dancing in Connection. HUCK BROS. Props.
diatribe, with some such title as "The the finer forms of drama must surely ttion of the proletariat."
=0
1=11 01=10100
11
0 1=01=10=101=101:2101=310=01==10=110=
Decline of the I)rimia" has been pub- suffer shipwreck.
lished, and NO. \1'alkley parallels the
There used, however, to be last
French record with a similar list resource—the printed drama. That is
anent the English Theater, beginning
a far from negligible form. I have
with "A Letter on the Decay and
recently become acquainted through
Degradation of English Theatrical
this medium with the remarkable four
literature," just a century ago. If,
volumes of Francois de Curet, Mem-
nevertheless, I have dared to hoist a bre de l'Acadetnie Francaise, and have
similar danger-signal, it is because certainly enjoyed myself more than
we are in the presence of a nouva fait
at even most French theaters, and
an aggravation of the economic fac- without the drawbacks of the journey,
tor at all times conspicuous as thr the price of a stall, or the elderly
standing danger of art.
French harpies. The concentration of
That factor was already suffi•ientty life, which is drama, the rapidity with
America s F:nest FurnaLre.
formidable. The Utilitarian Philos- which one arrives at the essence of
ophy had a formula which might al- the situation, is infinitely exhilarat-
most have been invented to express ing after the average novel, especially
the secret of dramatic success. The to one who can read a play as a mu-
play must provide the greatest hap- moan reads a score. The practicing
piness of the greatest number." It of publishing new plays was growing
must express therefore the lowest in England and contributing by te-
common measure of culture, the most lex action to the elevation of our
normal emotion and vision. Mr. Ber- literary standard of drama, already
nard Shaw in his preface to one of improved by the accession of the
his plays, calculates at seventy or a theater of almost all our men of let-
hundred thousand the number of ters (though they only gave it their
patrons who must indirectly put thee' second best). "I always say to
money together to enable a play to dramatists, publish your play," Henry
run. But in these days, when to score James observed to use once. "Pub-
your century on the stage no longer lish your play if you are not ashamed

U

U

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n
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