SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 1924 THE MICHIGAN DAILY PAGE FI-
Frank Wedekind; Diabolic Moralist
When Ambassador Gerard returned MAXWELL NOWELS hut no decadent affectation or artIfic-
to his native shores to compose his iality. His leonine raging at his
epochal ndietment of thsings Teutoni, thing less than blesphemy (it said kin that taste is the only morality
there was b played at Ma Rein- what the audience thought). All of and base their attacks on the grounds countrymen is unquestionably genu-
tiig paayddbaseMtheirigrounds Oemysieie tteh ehd
hardt's Theatre in Berlin a play which which showed conclusively the de- of poor taste. But again there exists joe. One noy smile at the method
gave the good diplomat ample proof plorable immorality of the Uebermen- the tendency on the part of the de- he used to obtain the reunion of bol-
of the obscenity of the German mind. schen- fenders of artistic freedom to claim ness and beauty; but he believed in
The play was Earth-Spirit (Erdgeist), But the Ambassador can hardly be as a work of art anything denounced their efficacy. In his desire for the sn-
its author was Frank Wedekind, and blamed when such a supposedly liber- by the censors. In their zeal to aid niiltion of the ugly and the weak,
worse, the Berliners were de'ouriig al critic as Franz Ebling applies such worthy things they sometimes array he exposed the dirty, rotten, debased,
both. The actors openly insulted the terms as "stench-producers," "foul fa-. themselves in defense of pure trash, and disgusting side of life to his smug
audience (told them the truth), n-I tuities" to Wedekind's plays. It is a The difference in the harm done by fellowmen to jolt them from their self-
acted unspeakably revolting scenes platitude that our moral overlords the two forces is merely a matter of ismposed ignorance of the sexual status
(showed the audience its more inti- tend to attack anything frank. Their degree. An examination of Wedekind quo. Behind all his sensationalism
mate, simian self--, bit exaggerated etfisrts cwould probably be more ef- and his works should determine to there always remains his profound
perhaps), and the play itself was no-i fective if they would agree with Ruis- which category they belong contempt for the public. Hence his
Drama as the instrument for the ineffectiveness as a propagandist.
dissemination of one's prejudices Is Wedekind's real service was to widen
IUIII[I~fll~ f1111|111t1N11111iN1111f1161 1 1Iit ti l ~il questionable. Plays with a sincere the territory of things mentionable at
purpose, a burning message, or a vi- the expense of things theretofore n-
tal theme are usually exalted lectures. mentionable. He secured ample space
a1n glrg eentS O ur Isben's Ghosts is art because he does for those who were to follow--intel-
g r e n snot stoop to refined demagoguery. lectual "elbow-room."
His portraiture is always unbiased. "Spring's Awakening" (Frueling's
Specialty The mediocrity of Brieux can be ac- Erwachen) which is probably arch-
counted for by his inability to refrain typically Wedekind displays with
froms elaboring the institutions of startling realism and characteristic
La Patrie. Les Avarees is a harm- 'exaggeration the danger to the adol-
less attack on the ignored presence escent of silence on the part of the
of social disease. Although La Robe parent as to sex. Through nineteen
Rouge maintains a much higher dra- rapidly shifting 'stnes which aie
matic milieu, it is primarily a denun- usually mere dialogue or soliloquy he
ciation of French Civil Service. The drags pathology, sadistic perversion,
nadir is reached in the present day and insanity upon the stage in the
in such plays as "For All Of Us" and effort to hound, to insult the audience
Channing Pollock's "The Fool." Art into a realization of its own ignor-
and didacticism are not mutually ex- ane. The final scene takes place in
elusive but mutually detractive. All a graveyard where one character rises
this is by way of saying that Wede- 'dank and decaying from his grave to
o kind wrote with a purpose. His art converse with his former friend, his
is weakened by his moralistic rag- pulpy head tinder his arm. Morality
ing but it survives none the less for them-and hence for Wedekind-
Whatever were his faults, Wede is the real product of two imaginary
kind was neither a charlatan nor a Iquantities: Should and Would. "Un-
1Iti i i poseur. A bit decadent?-Perhap ter Moral verstehe ich das reele Pro-
dukt zweier imaginaerer Groessen
Sind Sllen nd Wollen. Das Produkt
=llt1111111tillgl litlilllliiti1heisst Moral und laesst sich in seiner
Pealitaet nicht leugnen." In spite of
its revolutionary character Spring's
Awakening is constructive. Wede-
kind's other plays are of a distinctly
7' - nihilistic morality. Pandora's Box
(Die Beuchse der Pandora) leaves no-
thing unsaid or diaphanously veiled.
-1This play forms a rather loose tri-
ology with Damnation and Earth-
Spirit. The Marquis of Keith in comn-
= parison with them becomes conven-
tional and Halbe's Jugend is over-
shadower. The plays have no form;
one scene does not logically lead to
ct / another; the archaic soliloquy is em-
_..- ployed; situations are altered abrupt-
ly without the intervention of ex-
-, _planatory dialogues. The first act
of Pandora's Box is written in Ger-
man, the second in French, and the
third in bad English. Wedekind ig-
nores plausibility. Leaping from fan-
FOR THE ANNIVERSARY tasy and ghosts to vivid realism, be
F1 N1drags one though his ghoulish night-
mare. Where other dramatists had
touched delicately for fear of over-
or birthday occasions nothing is more acceptable boldness the woman-with-a-past and
the demi-monde, Wedekind flaunts
than a silver coffee set. Colonial in design in - sadism, masochism and animalism.
By these means the Mephistophe-
heavy plated silver at $40 up. We also have a ean moralist attempts to establish
the reign of beauty on earth. The
display of silver plated cracker and cheese dish so-called liberals soile and call him a
1 naughty boy while the pure-at-heart
es, cake and bread trays. - gather their skirts and turn up indig-
nant noses. It is not difficult to un-
derstand why Wedekind has been
either ignored or misunderstood. He
seems always to be rigging into the
refuse of life hoping there to unearth
J a dormant beauty which he knows lies
buried in the heap. He is rewarded
only by broken fragments-never suc-
ceeding in unearthing an intact whole.
The poetic and artistic passages are
STATE STREET JEWELER at best sporadic and all too few.
To characterize Wedekind's works
302 S. State St. _ as satirical is to fall far short of the
truth. They are presentations of
stark, bare, revolting facts. Let that
beast, the audience, see life as it is!
Walk in! The show's not new,
i____________IIIl________ii___lllill______i_______ill ___________________________1111l________I__Illlll __N1 P yetieveryd oart i
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