THE THEATRE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 79, 28 December 1918, Page 3

THE THEATRE

By "Sylvius."

The Kaiser and Shakespeare As is well known the works of AVillinm Shakespeare tiro much admired by t,he Gormniis. Indeed, it seemed to them ?o incrcdi.blc n thiiiy that such ii mini should have sprung from English stock that about ten years ago .this Gornnins proposed to adopt flic biird as a Gorman subject, and a great deal of propaganda was written to tlmt end. The Gormnne appear to have believed even as long, ago, that propaganda properly directed and insistently argued could do anything, even to changing, a person's nationality after his death. A little honest British ridicule and French satire cured fho freaks of Berlin of their silliness. Of all the Shakespearean tragedies, the exKaiser is giiid to have preferred "Macbeth," the one- play in which a Scottish chief risked all for the sake of ambition, spurred on, bo it said, by a wife of peculiarly I'lnnnish attributes. Macbeth commences his career by entertaining King Duncan, and then murdering him when asteep; hires assassins to murder the suspicious Banquo, and puts iu death the whole of MacduiT's brood in thorough Hunnish style. Finally, Maedufl', with right and justice on. his side, houndis down the forces of the guilty king, who, quaking with fear at the fate so surely in 6toro for him, soliloquises (as wo may suppose AVijliam Hohenzollcni is soliloquising now in Holland): Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow. A poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. 'Tie a tale told by an idiot, l''ull of sound and fury Signifying nothing! Truly the Kaiser's life, as we know it, is "ii tale told by iin idiot." Trend of Theatrical Tasto, Is Gilbert and Sullivan played out? I can, in fancy, see many dear people 1 know throwing up their hands in virtuous horror at such a suggestion, and my feelings are all with them. But. the fact remains that progressive managements look askance at the brilliant nperns which delighted a world a quarter of n century since, and (lie recent experience of the local amateurs in "The Gondoliers" must make the management committee'think hard when it comes to the consideration of its next opera, for the receipts fell below any of its previous seasons, and it was the first occasion on which the society had essayed a G. and S. opera, Beal lovers of good music saw the very excellent performance and took joy in it, but they were not thero in overwhelming numbers, and the gallery—the real test—was suspiciously thin right through the eeason. Thpy evidently did not want to hear the fiiiltured, subtle wit of tho master librettist, and were obviously out of touch with tho Gilbertian suir'it. What is it, thpn, that has caused this curious de- , fectiou? Change of fashion, most probably. The quick-moving, ever-changing coloursome, but purposely idiotic revue coupled with the tvo-niiles-a;mimite moving pictures have seduced the theatregoers' minds gradually but surely away from tho intrinsically clever and ingenious works of Gilbert and Sullivan, and tire mode being general—for the change sot in when musical comedy supplanted comic opera twenty years ago—the lighter singing stage has. not been producing Gilbertian humorists or artiste who can- do justice to Sullivan's music. That; I take it, is the kernel of the trouble, Managers would revert to G. and S. readily enough wero there any money in it, biit they have tried the experiment and they know, that tho fashion has changed.

Another reason may b-e the fact that G. and S. wrote enduring operas round the fad of the moment. "H.M.S. Pinafore" was a satire on a phase of politics, which mado land-lubbers Lords of the Admiralty. "Stick close io your desks and never go to sea, And you all. may be rulers Of the Queen's Navae." "lolivhthe" brilliantly satirised the House of-Peers, the.constitution of which' was being criticised at the time of its original performance, and "Patience" was a gorgeously melodious jjibe at the aesthetic craze of the hour in London, led ]>y that cranky genius, Oscar AVilde. It was Kiralfy's "Venice in London" at the Crystal Palace which gave G'. and S. the idea for "The Gondoliers," and "The Mikiwlo" was Lorn of a craze for everything "Jnpanesy. , "Princess Ida." was founded on Tennyson's "Princess, which was given comical expression to at a time when woman was asserting her superiority over mere man, long, long before Christobel Pankhurst shook a hefty, gniup at Cabinet Ministers. One work which, to my mind, stands out rock-like in achievement, and gives a faithful picture of mediaeval England free from tho influence of any passing fad, is "Tho Yeoman of the Guard, an opera conceived in a grander spirit than any of the series, one which strikes n. deeper note, and htis n_ more lofty tono in plot and characterisation than all the rest. It may not bo 60 tuneful in a popular sense; if it were, it might not bo what it is—the greatest work of Gilbert and Sullivan. Notes. . J "Do Luxo Annie" is to be revived by ,T. and N. 'fait at the Palace Theatre, Sydney, on Boxing Night.- In the meantime the Sydney Kepertoiro Company will play "The Doctor's Dilemma" and tho double bilL "How He Lied to Her Husband" and Galsworthy's "The Pigeon."