THE DRAMA.
CHIEFLY CONCERNING MR SHAW.
(Br Ctbajjo,)
Miss Maud Allan's delightful entertainment had its interest for the lover and student of the drama as well as for those to whom musio and dancing appeals. Her motto is, "Simplify, simplify!* To someone who expressed appreciation of the striking and beautiful stage setting, Miss Allan said that her aim had always been to make her dancing and its surroundings as simple as possible. Tho result is that her appeal ia refreshingly direct, and the imagination of the spectator is untrammelled by non-essentials-Doubtless many among her audiences who know the work of Maeterlinck and Yeats wero struck at once by the suitability of that kind of stage setting for drama of mysticism and shadowy romance. Such a high semicircle of curtains, on which the skilfullymanipulated lights made beautiful effects, would make an admirable background for that "half-light" drama in which the fate of souls is seen as through a mist. But; it would do also for much robust work. Could not a great part of "Hamlet" and some of "Macbeth" be-played in such beautiful and serene simplicity ? Gordon Craig's revolutionary ideas of staging are, one imagines, . on • somewhat the same lines. Doubtless it will be a long time before we 6ee Shakespeare or anybody else played without stereotyped scenery and properties, but Miss Allan has given us a glimpse of what might be, and we should be thankful.
Those who have been puzzled and pained by Mr G. B. Shaw's contemptuous references to Shakespeare, will be interested to know that, according to Miss Ellen Terry, he does not mean what he says. Mr Shaw she knows well. Reminded by an Australian interviewer that Mr Shaw had, in more places than onej declared that he wrote better plays than Shakespeare, Miss Terry declared that at first she believed that he did this simply to annoy her. ", Afterwards," she'said, "I realised that it was his peculiar way of joking, because no man.ever had a.greater appreciation than Shaw of the beauties of Will of Avon/ But after all, it does not greatly matter—except to Mr Shaw. •
" By an easy transition we pass on to [Mr Shaw's new play, "Pygmalion," which was produced by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree just before the last mail ,left London. There were circumstances that made the production more than ordinarily interesting. "Pygmalion" had been produced in Germany—the reason given by Mr Shaw for this procedure being that he did not get justice from London critics. Then it was the first time a new Shaw play had been produced. at tho leading English .play-house by tho actor who, however much ho may fall short of being a great actor, is recognised, as the head of the profession. The play was very skilfully boomed beforehand. The "Daily Telegraph," for instance, published in'one of its most important pages a column interview with Mr Shaw, in which he gave free rein to his irresponsible agotism and . SSayian humour. Australian managers would be well pleased if they could persuade newspapers to giv,e their new ventures similar publicity gratis. "No," he emphatically said to his interviewer, "I am not at all anxious as, to the representation of 'Pygmalion' *on Saturday. With such a cast, and after the pain* that have been taken. with the preparation—the production, as people call it—there can be no ground for the smallest anxiety on that score. The question is, will the first night audience cive the play a chance ? Will the hygienic gentlemen who have been told by their doctors that there is nothing o good for tho lungs as a hearty five minutes' guffaw be there ? Will the kindly people who think it encourages the poor, dear actors to be interrupted at every tenth word by shouts of appreciation, all be laid up with influenza, as I most fervently hope they may? Will the faithful pilgrims who come long distances and sit on the steps of the ' satre all day to secure a front seat. _nd devote their whole souls to giving receptions to their idols at the most disconcerting moments, will they be there ? if so," you may put the idea of an artistic performance out of your head: the thing is impossible. Tho continuity of the play will be lost; all the traditions from one mood to another, which cost so much artistic study and work to perfect, will be obliterated; the performers, trying to concentrate, themselves on a long and difficult task,'will be distracted and* forced to give up all attempt at fine work in despair; the spectators will be worried by their own •loisy enjoyment; and, finally, they will ;ose their trains and go home half an tour late, cross and tired, and have .voids i with one another, ending with, i. will never go to tho theatre with you igain while I live.' "
But, to como to tho play, maiion" is about a iiondon flowergirl, who is turned by a prolessor ot phonetics into a duchess. Ihe general opinion seems to be that m parts it is brilliant and in parts cheap and rather boring. On the one hand v..c critic of "Truth" says that the humour in one scene is better man Moneres in "Lo Bourgeois Gentilhomme, while the London correspondent of "iae Sydney "Sun" declares that if the play had not had Mr Shaw's name attached to it, it would not have got past -"O reader of any London theatre—winch, considering tho blunders many readers make in rejecting good plays, is not as severe a criticism as the writer means, it to be. The London correspondent of the "Sydney Horning Herald" sends the following comments on and summary of the play: "Pygmalion" seems to us, indeed, to be no more than fairly good Shaw. It is in ( five acts, but, nevertheless, its slightness is clearly enough apparent in a big theatre like His Majesty's. Cleverness there is, of course, and humour, and Tree as Henry Higgins, an eccentric and ill-mannered professor of phonetics, who. hearing a person talk, can instantly name h-s'place of origin, and Mrs Patrick Campbell as a «Jockney flower-girl, whose accent of slumdom Higgins gradually transforms into the delfcate articulation of Mayfair, serve tho play as well as it could bo served, But when you have allowed the brilliant acting, and the humour, and the familiar Shavian lunging at this and that inconsistency of hnman nature, you are still aware that this is not Vue Shaw of 'Candida,' and 'Man and Superman,' and 'You Never Can Tell." It is not impossible, indeed, that the crowds now hurrying to see it are attracted more or less by the fact of tho daring expletive Shaw has put into tho mouth of Mrs Patrick Campbell; It occurs in the third act, a really delightful scene, in which fcliza, having had some months of lessons in polite conversation, is exploited .at an 'at home.' She talks beautifully as to accent—on Mrs Campbell's best manner—but perpetually tails into the jargon of her class. Thus, you hear the Mayfair manner and the jjiile End matter, as when th© girl, giving an account of herself to one of the company, announces her belief that her deceased aunt was really 'done in' by somebody. But the climax comes when, nsrru ._-» po, and taking leave of her iMwtees m the most correct fashion, she
lis asked by a young gentleman, whether she is walking across the I'aric And Eliza answers, 'WalK? Not b-~-v likely.' It fell on the theatre like an explosive, and the theatre laughed tone and loudly. Of course, its propriety has been challenged, and equally «f course, Shaw writes to justify its effect there is not the shadow, of a doubt. Otherwise, Mrs Campbell portrays the evolution of Eliza with consummate skill, while Tree, always, at his best in an eccentric role, fills the long part of Henry fliggins with/iiie flair and resource of a great comedian There is one other character of importance —Alfred Doolittle—who wQI taue rank among Shaw's best creations. Ha is Eliza's father, -uul a dustman and his discourse on himself as one of the undeserving poor, and the unrecognised rights of the undeserving poor generally, is vastly amusing. All the same, Elina's swear-word is at present the great novelty of 'Pygmalion,'" J
Remarkable recitals have been erven at the Sydney Repertory Theatre by Miss Dorothea Spinney. She gave sin-gle-handed Euripides' tragedy ".uippolytus," employing the translation of Professor Gilbert Murray, one of Australia's, most distinguisned Eons. > IU6 stage was bare save for a high waxcandle on either side, the bases corn cealed in ferns and lilies, a drapod chair, and a background of dark-brao curtains. Miss Swriney wore robes with a border of gold silk and sandals. Her delivery of the tragedy is warmly nrnised by the "Sydney Morning Herald." Miss Spinney followed this on another night wul three Trisb plays. one of themi the beautiful "Kathleen, ni Houlihan " by Yeats, and scored another success
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Press, Volume L, Issue 149814, 30 May 1914, Page 4
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1,492THE DRAMA. Press, Volume L, Issue 149814, 30 May 1914, Page 4
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