PRUSSIANISM AND ART

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 61, 6 December 1920, Page 7

PRUSSIANISM AND ART

OPPOSITE FORCES IN BERLIN

DRIVES REINHARDT TO

AUSTRIA

(By Otfto Zorn in New York "Evening Post.")

It is perhaps known that Mas Eoinhardt, tho famous Gorman producer, is about to retire from his ventures in Berlin. He has bought a beautiful old castle here in Salzburg, built by one of the archbishops in the seventeenth century, and he is dotormined to make Salzburg a unique centre. In a long Interview with.me this afternoon ho developed his ideas of the future of the German stage. Ho Baid: "The .Berlin theatres, onco the best field for the development of the stage and the best kind 1 of drama, are seriously in dango\ of decay. The Prussian passion for work and efficiency, powerful before the war, is only heightened by the necessi- •: ties imposed upon the country by defeat and the Treaty. People in Berlin no' longer have leisure i!o enjoy art as art must be onjoyed. They rush into the theatres as tired business men with -jagged nerves, .and demand, excitoment and sensation. , "iMeanwhilo the moving picture indus■trr is drawing the actors'away from ilho best theatres. Good plays simply cannot be given in artistic.fashion on the ' star plan. Tou must have a company ■■'■ of first-rate actors, so thai! every part can be taken by, an artist, and you must ■ keep them fresh by-. a repertory pro- . gramme which demands much. devotion, • ■understanding'Of the drama, and much time. The high salaries ef the movies, .especially now ,>thai) living is so-high, have proved too great a competitor to ' Artistic devotion. When firsr-nito notors are asked to play minor parts they prefer the:big money of the movies, and the artistic ensemble is,spoiled, "Then, too," he added, "the state finds it necessary to levy .taxes on all boxoffice receipts up. to 30 per cent., instead of coming to i(he help of;tho theatres as once upon a time. • This makes for very higlr pricea, and consequently a greater .dependence of ..tho director.' upon the whims of the audiemie." -.-.'-

As a result.tho Berlin-theatre is rapid•.ly undergoing a change. The repertory prjogriamme has already disappeared ■■' from a number of the best.-tbeatvea,. and in Broadway Btyle eomo hit per season .'is played...-Reiuhardt says he will not devote himself .to that sort of thing. 1 But this scheme makes it possible for iflie theatres to continue and also to hold pood actors. \Kohearsals are almost dropped, and tho cast given a chance to sell its spare moments to the movies. In Berlin only the largo people's play- " houses,, dike -Reinhardfa • new amphithoatre, will toe able to maintain themselves •with tho old programme. The tremendous capacity of such ' houses mnkes it- possible to sell admission at .a,-low price, to get the unsophisticated audience recap? tive to ideal offocts, and thus to give the actor a,nd director a proper amosphere.in which-to play. The accumulated receipts also enables the payment of ' good wages'to'the actors. "In order to save the drama in Ger-man-speaking Europe, however," Bernhardt said, "it is necessary to establish »orae refugo away from the sinister influences of the metropolis, whero works ,of art can again be [riven in a fostivn : spirit; where actors- will be. anxiouß to come for the summer months to get rid of the grime of the city and the movies, 'and refresh - themselves by a redevotion to ideals; where the audienco will como for the same reason and tako time to tl concentrate on-the better things of life, and where, finally, the surroundings are • such as to promote idealism in art, 1 feel that nnless such a. refuge is found and established at onee the drama and .-'. the theatre of Germany aro doomed." The producer has, thorefore, decided •to turn over his nffairs in Berlin to his friends Felix Hollander and • Gorbart Hauptmann, Germany's' foremost . dra- . statist, and to devote his energies to. tha. establishing, of ; a-[new;..and different Imtne for the drama-here in Salzburg. ,At tho • same time he will still bo. atthe service of his friends in Berlin when needed.

The' idea is not entirely now in Salzburg. It has simply been given new and decisive impetus by a remarkable pot■formanco of "Everyman * There is a well-organised society already in existence hero.' Tears back the people dreamed of such a plan,: and., in ..preparation ijava large Mozart festivals at various times. In 1910 Goraldlno Farrar, Scotti, and many other eminent artists came a ■long .distance to take part in such a celebration. In 1014. another large festival was planned, but interrupted by the outbreak of the war. It just so happened,' however, that Salzburg was' loft comparatively untouched during" thest" last years, .'So the nien.hore, among them many 'famous artists, kept on working towards the realisation of their dream. As defeat came and Austria was reduced toa minute republic they gathered ■ all the more enthusiasm for their vision, -saying that Austria can recover and amount to a respected member of the nations only by virtue of its spiritual riches. -..

• A recent general meoting of the organisation which 1 attended was an expression of almost youthful, perhaps Tiennese, optimism.. Thoy have -very little capital in sight, but they bblievo in their vision, know it will stir. Hie imagination of tho outside world, nnd thus •come.to a quick realisation. At the end /of the. meeting, Professor' Poeltzig, tho well-known . Berlin hullder of ' theatres, presented'a plan of the Salzburg Festival Playhouse to be built out in the --romantic suburbs overlooking the Sips. . It.is to cost about a million dollars. Even -that does not daunt them. They believe .their idea greater or Oberammergau, have faith tliat it wjll infect all lovers of art, and that money will then be forthcoming. Hugo Jlofmannsthal, Hermann Bahr, Stephen ..Zweig, the greatest of Austria's writers to-day, have settled' down here with Bernhardt to promote the plan, ..-.-■At the end of my interytfew with Bernhardt I asked him about his views of the American drama. "The drama," ho said, "must be masculine and concentrated. Europe seems to have lost thrtSM finalities for the present. Porhaps America is the hopo for' the future of tho drama, ■if only the way is; first cleared for it. The American drama cannot hope to arise before the theatre prepares tho way, arid fho-dogeneracy of sensationalism i* done away with, which is appearing iii |;nropo as a sign of artistic invpotency, 'but in America still continues as an expression . of ■ artistic immaturity."

Bernhardt sees no r«i«on why such a ctmngo should not come quickly if only the experiment is boldly made'.' If some genius of the Enropean ; stage wero to present modern classic. playß in the European style the American genius' : onght to find it considerably easier to express Ids' pivn peciftfar'and fresher qualities. "At nil events," he concluded, "the; real. wofT for America '■ must finally "Be; dene by Americans, not by Europeans."