THE FUTURE PLAY

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2123, 15 April 1914, Page 8

THE FUTURE PLAY

WHAT FORM WILL IT TAKE

AIRY SPECULATION

BY THE BIG PRODUCERS?

IBt Sylvius.! Mr. Charles Frohman, the Amer* lean theatrical manager, who for a number of years has been' lessee of several playhouses in London, predicts that the most successful play of the futuro will have a succession of scenes' so quickly completed that it will resemble a kincmutograph play. Ho claims that it will have tho movement of pictures with real people's voices.—Cable message from London. Lovers of tho good and worthy in tli drama need sufter no perturbation c spirit at tfio flboi'o cabled opinion c Mr. Charles Frohman, as to' tJio futnr of _ tho drama, assuming that it is hi opinion, about which thero may bo ; doubt. It is quito possible to suppos that what Mr. Frohman says may b tho fu'turo of the photo-play, as every ono knows that experiments are beini made all over tho world to syuchronis tho kincmatograph and the gramaphoise Four or fivo yours ago ono"such-paten was tried at tho old Theatre itoyat wit; but indifferent success. It is easy tconceive that ono day records will b secured and reproduced to precisely co incido with tho gestures and iip-niove ments of the people in the picture- win are supposod to be speaking, but if tin big American manager implies that tin rapid-fire, scene (a la cineliia)j'witl sup plant'tho'normal action drama, prope: iriauy will tako leave to doubt Ms judg ment. ....-'. Flying to the Play. It may be remembered by readers o The Dominion that Mr. Frohman a fe\ mouths ago prophesied that in twci.it; years' timo the public would be/ flying bird-like, to tho theatres, and that o-ac! playhouse would have to provide a loft; aerodrome or lauding-placo for its ierp planing patrons. Twenty years may-sei many wonders that cannot bo antibipat ed, and tho art of prophesy when tin culminating dato is so far removed is i comparatively safe one, but it may bi concluded that'there will not bo man; drastic changes in the form of th< drama. After all, the drama is tlie ar of "holding tho mirror up to nature, , and as people in real life do not rusl about .madly and encompass a- whirl o episode in a minuto or two-, tliey are no likely to do so on the ■ stage. Then may be changes in the character ai th< matter used in play-building, eonsequeu' upon tho rise of the democracy and the resultant change in social conditions, With the increasing purpose of writersfor the stage such as John Galsworthy, Brieux, and Granvillo ■ Barker, subjects may be handled' in theatrical farm thai have never been contemplated in siicii a connection heretofore. Brietix, ihe French writer, recently had produced in New York a very powerful play dealing with an unmentionable disease, and Mr. Michael Morton has had. his famous play, "Tlie Yellow Ticket," produced in ;he samo city this' year, a- play, that deals with ail outrageous restriction placed on Jewish women within thoßussian Empire. These and other sociological subjects may dovolop iwfl* lines of thought for tho dramatists, 'kit the form in which they will bo presented cannot diverge so far as to in any way ruscmblo tho rapidity of action and movement associated with the Jdiiematograph. There are some .hundreds of capablo actors and actresses now acting; boforo tho camera, and in tho majority of cases their wori: ;s wfcllstudied and polished, but in the picture play everything must bo "boiled down," must bo concentrated into tabloid foi'ffl, so that an entire story, with scones in many lands perhaps involving changes of costume and "make-up," may bo presented in ten or twelve minutes. _ To make my meaning clearer jii this regard, I would instance the oft-recurring case where, during the screening of a film, tho lantern flashes on the screen the dialogue the players are to speak in tho next picture, but so quickly is the scene performed that it would be scarcely possiblo for the players to deliberately speak the lines in the time that scet'ion. of the picture is being shewn. Shakespeare's Form. Shakespeare has been played since the days of haughty Queen ai«l is as popular as ever to-day. 'Within a few days the brightest lights in the firmament of tho stage will .adjourn-to Stratford-on-Avon, to participate, in tlie annual festival of the Bard who set tho form of plays for ail time, even ns ho wrote for all time. And so I venttiro to believo that as long as the dramatist has something to say, whether it move to laughter or tears, the public will want the flesh-and-Mood actor, and not the photographed form —tho substance, aud not tho shadow—to say it.

Frohman the Freakish. 'As against the i3ea of Frohman the freakish, 1 heg leave to quote one or two other opinions, seme of which deal with the aspect mentioned by the in* spirer of this article. Mr. Lee Schubert, ono of 'America's biggest managers, said recently in "The Theatre": —"I do not believe that art is going to bo', overwhelmed by mechanics. However womterfol the motion pictures may became, and however astonishing tho reproduction of tlie acts may be, I think that the personal element will always be an absolute esseiw tial, and that the individual artists, after all, have nothing to fear. In fact, even if tho motion picture does be. come an demerit of even far greater importance as a national entertainment, this will by no means spell disaster for tho actor. On tho contrary, every manufacturing motion picture concern . must hare a competent stock company of players, and tho conditions under which theso people work aro in many respects 'superior to tho conditions that must b<? faced' in touring companies. I bolievo that , twonty-fivo years from irow, or fifty years from now, {rood acts; good play's, and good operas will stilt be in demand. Tho fact that beatttifui paintings can be copied by colour photography has sob diminished tho crowds tliat are ajixions to see original'paintings. The fact'that a play can ho reproduced <m the screen or without a screen even in eolours, ami with speech included by phonographic devices, will not prevent tho people from being primarily anxious to witness the original. . . . Nothing will tako tho ' place, of real nature." ,

On the samn subject, Mr. David Bolnsco said: "No ono can say what tlio thoatro will be like in twenty years. Indeed, no one ("nit sav with any certainty what it will bo like in one year. One bit of order survives tho chaps of present conditions. A good play well produced rarely fails."

Mr. Marc Klsuv. of-Jtlaw and ErlanKor. said: "I think it was Andrew Carnegie wlio said it was very easy to post) as a prophet! owaHso if your sootii-say-jjin-s failed nobody would giro ttsr-m 'an-* oilier thought; and if thev wore, fulfilled vou could nlwavs say: 'I told j'oil so! . Consequently, it is "0 act of courage to makfi a guess as to what the tlv-atre will bo in ttt-ontv years from now. Fiiysically, I tliink it- wiJi Lie a much simpler structure than it is to-day, and in tlm tlioatre of driumi mnst cf tin ,, boxes will lie climiiiatod. as_ tiwy interfoiv, ns ii rule, with lioth sijjlit and komhcl. Artistically, it must improve. Errni to-day plays arc aceppted wlwso Matter is so abstract that- they «ouhl not havt» ronimanded a Iwrf-dossii audie/icos tircnt.v years ago. Acting Siaa improred is spits

of all the howl.about, llio 'palmy ' ».VR of the drama, flinl w> li»v». t-li«» jilny*. The plays of Iwo doradcs hoiiw ' will I abound ia paiiiouiiuK.i, ■ lliiiiilis-;.l» l«'\ 'education in that, direction ..<.!■ iiuvviiik '■ pictures. .Scenery ./in tlm-iiMl, twisty years will licoome α-mattfr of au.strmil. i'decoration giviUK tho-mores!, »ii(JK«»tioa of locale. The promise <>f tlinj is already seen in Germany, vvlicw they )wvo abandoned .•vorythiiig ■.■'.lj'il. Iho simplest horizon drops" to imtato lliw sky. This hori-am drop mnv. lm yellow or" green or Who, hut rarely htw it « cloud or anyfchmK to iml tout'.; that it ib other than r>, cloth (iUßfiosUon ol tho firmament. Troes ■ and decorations »f that kind, I 'brliovo, will ho nlMolutnl.v flat, in Japanese- elyle, i»> rffoH hvinu, made at perspective, as I said—strictly decorative. J think this itiiiiplo dworntive idea will also apply U> dress nml stage furnifcuro. Printed riwwwe will bo lai'gely reportorial rather than critical, except in weekly and monthly magazines devoted cxperHy and solely to art matters."