PEOPLE'S THEATRES.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14842, 6 December 1913, Page 13

PEOPLE'S THEATRES.

WONDERFUL MOVEMENT IN "BACKWARD ,, RUSSIA. BEST PLAYS AND OPERAS FOR A PEW PENCE. Cfrom a correspondent.) ST. PETERSBURG, October 27. ' Backward Russia, iv most things of culture, Europe's byword, leads tho world in People's Theatres. That is, in theatres with good art and lowpriced scats, whore tho tired working man, to whom 2s is an exorbitant charge, can see things worth seing for much less. In most European countries people's theatres are few; civilised England, despite the experiment of Walter iiesant with the People's Palace, has not got one at all; and the hard-iip workman resorts to tho moving picture or the cheap variety show. Yet barbarous Russia has 4j07 theatres existing wholly and entirely for the working class. They range from spleni did stone playhouses and opera houses, one of which is the biggest theatre in the world, down to modest wooden buildings in remote "uyezd" towns. And in addition to 406 of such people's theatres, there are many others which are too modest for statistics, and consist chiefly of an enterprising schoolmaster, a barn, and a few artistic muzhiks. People's theatres existed in Russia at times when there were none at all elsewhere. They existed under serfdom ; and, in fact, originated with serfdom. Wealth}' owners of thousands of "souls" used to send tho mbst promising "souls" to Moscow and St. Petersburg that they might -learn to dance, play, and sing; and these histrionic nmzihiks, though remaining slaves, wero kept for my lord's entertainment, just as the mediaeval barons kept jesters and buffoons. Soon .after the emancipation, an ex-serf named Llicbailowsky, who had been trained as an opera singer at the cost of Prince Demidoff, started, in the town of Tver, a small, cheap theatre for the working classes. The need for doing something to entertain tho now free-muzhik led to small theatres being started by kindhearted people in towns, and even in villages, chiefly in Tamboy and Kursk governments; and several towns later started musical people's theatres with popular prices; or allotted the use of the ordinary theatres for several days in the week to audiences of working men.

Much of the success of the movement is due to Prince Alexander of Oldenburg. The Prince of Oldenburg is a J relative of the Romanoffs; his son, I Prince Peter, is maVried to the Czar's' sister Olga, and his wife, who was born' a Duchess of Leuchtenberg, is" also a kinswoman of Nicholas 11. Prince Alexander is a man of marked artistic talent and administrative capacity; he leads in every good work; and he is almost the only man about the court who enjoys popular respect. His wife-, Princess Eugenic Maxiinilianovna, backs him. Prince Alexander managed to get as a gift tho disused iron building of the Niji-Novgorod Exhibition, and he had this adapted, given a facade, and set up on the "Petersburg side" to the north of the Neva, which is the historic centre of the capital. This is,-the building now officially known, as "The. People's House of Nicholas II." The People's House consiste of a theatre, library, and'restaurants; and last year it had a triumph in.the addition on its left wing of a vast Peoplo's Opera House which holds 3500 spectators. ' The Opera House has thus no jriyal in the world. It.is built of reiiiforbed concrete (seven women engineers helping to put it together), and it has a;more scientific lighting and ventilation system than any other Russian theatre.- Since its addition, the People's House as a whole, > counting the two theatres, restaurants, libraries, and grounds, can hold 30.000 persons; and every Sunday and holiday it is full. The one trouble is that, as in all Russian People's Theatres, the .show is co good that the dearer seats tend to be filled by the middle class and even by aristocrats.

Prince Alexander and Princess Eugenic worjeed so hard at managing this Opera House that it has now a splendid chorus and some first-rate solo singers, and it can tackle a varied repertory. It has staged all the best Russian, Italian, French, and German composers ; and can claim with the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, to havo been the only theatre other than Bayreuth to play Wagner's "Pnreifal." bo well was Wagner done that one of tho Bayreutlf managers went to St. Petersburg to see if he could pick up notions. In this way, at prices as low as threepence, a musical feast is given to the Petersburg workman which is not enjoyed by th£ richestv.citizen anywhere else.

. The essence of a People's Theatre is that prices shall be low. In big towEs like St. Petersburg the maximum is relatively high, sometimes two shillings; more often the highest price is a shilling; and the cheapest seats may cost only a penny. There are some theatres which have only one price for eeats. In the "uyezd" towns, where wages aro low and other entertainments non-existent, there are People's Theatres with a maximum price of threepence; and there are village People's Theatres, consisting of a barn, a schoolmaster, and a dozen ambitious peasants, which give winter performances once a week and charge a penny for entry. It is hard to make such theatres pay. But the reports show that ns the result of gratis help from artists and musicians and «upporl» from the rich public, 47 out of every 100 People'& Theatres pay their way; •while the other 53 per cent, ate heiped along by usually small subsidies. By their variety of representation, even m towns of 50,000 or so inhabitants, the People's Theatres show the large amount of latent artistic talent in the Russian nation. Tho small town of Kostroma, without any help from without, in one year, gave representations of plays and -operas by Sliakespearo, Moliere, Schiller, Hauptmann, Ostrovsky. Tchekhoff. Mozart, Wagner, Donizetti, Bizet, Mascagni, and it further gave a dozen concerts. Of course the performances were not first rate. In London or Paris they could be called very bad. But no French or English town of equal size could produce such works, well or ill. And, naturally, for grimy working men and muzhik carters they seem an inaccessible peak of art and civilisation.