FUTURE OF THE THEATRE

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 16, 19 January 1924, Page 21

FUTURE OF THE THEATRE

MISS CLEMENCE DANE'S

OPTIMISM.

In speaking on "The future of the theatre"'recently at the Old County Hall, London, Miss Clemence Dane was in optimistic mood, reports the London correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian." That the future of the theatre will be very muqh what we choose to make it'was the burden of her theme. In order that we may' best know what it should be we must, she held, wisely interrogate the past. Apparently she had faith in the willingness of the best of us to, do this. And .iff the activities of many of our young and earnest writers of to-day, as well as in some recent productions like. "Hussan" and "Back to Methuselah,"/ she saw, as she believed, the definite promise of great and growing achievements. * Miss Dane, who spoke with charming facility, with a faultless command of words, and, as it seemed, entire independence of notes, made some very' pleasing references to her apprenticeship to" the stage. She had found, life in touring companies -very fascinating. It was a life in which the actor or actress always had to exercise imagination on the work that wa6 being done." If she had a" son or daughter and could not afford to send him or her to a university^ she would consider worlou a touring company as the best aHnniativo. It was, in fact, she declared, tho finest education in tho world. She repudiated the doctrino of "art for art's' sake," and boldly proclaimed tho doctrine of art for the sake of use—in other words, of life. She claimed that in the great days of the theatre in Greece this was the view which was taken —the drama was the expression of the religious life of the people.- She had visited the ruins of many ancient theatres of Greece and she spoke of their close structural association with temples and. with cemeteries. In the mind of the ancient Greek the theatre was expressive of the sacred and solemn, things of life. In these days we should think it incongruous were we to pass . immediately from, say, Kensal Green,. Cemetery to His Majesty's Theatre. .!:But. to the, Greek mind the association of ideas between the one place and the other wasi very different from what it is now. - *» How in Christian times the drama was used by the Church was dealt upon, and coming down to the age of Queen Elizabeth, Miss Dauo " declared that then tho theatre provided tho chief, mental food of the,people. She deplored the fact that now the dramatist was debarred the four hours' traffic of the stage which was possible' to Shakespeare. Whilst tho Victorian age produced many great actors it produced few, if any, great plays. It was a prim and timid age, whicl\.wrapped its jvomen in crinolines ayd was afraid of the showing of legs; "We- had greater ireedon now. Much that was best in the drama of the present day she ascribed to the influence of Isben and Bernard Shaw, "a schoolmaster in cap and bells." Granville Barker and Galsworthy had also given great aid to the renaissance' of, the British theatre. We need not despair of the coming of another Shakespeare.