DISTURBED BY PLAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 123, 26 May 1937, Page 20

DISTURBED BY PLAY

GERMAN PRESS ATTACKS The German Press has been forced to. take notice, of the storms of ap-plause-interrupting every perform-; anee of Schiller's drama "Don- Carlos" here and.throughout Germany at the passage in which: the;; Marquis Posa demands of:: King Philip of Spain: "Sirej give us "freedom of thought," says a Berlin message to the "NewYork Times." ' .... This -applause is so fervent and so prolonged: that'the Press is forced to admit it represents a political demonstration against the intellectual and spiritual..regimentation.of the National Socialist regime, and. it turns against the applause accordingly.- ..- « . The "frankfurter Zeitung" accuses the person who "in the darkness of a 'theatre gives vent to his" possible bitterness over the course of events" of cowardice similar to that displayed by persons spreading political, witticisms. The paper does not deny youth the light of idealism, but it pleads with the demonstrators to "square idealism with reality." . ■ . "Love. Posa, but also understand Philip'and'the necessities of the day," it says. • ■ . ■ ■ The Hitler Youth publication, "Will and Might," apcuses the demonstrators of ' being unable 'to feel and think politically, and it expresses the view that Schiller, when he wrote "Don Carlos," was'still caught in eight-eenth-century humanitarian ideals which were un-German -and \^hich Schiller later repudiated. The. scene of. "Don-Carlos" is six-teenth-century Spain and the plea for freedom voiced by the Marquis - Posa occurs in a passage in which he entreats King Philip to abolish the Inquisition. Vigorous applause greeted these lines at the premiere of the play in • Berlin late in February and similar outbursts have been occurring since. The role of the Marquis is played by Ewald Balser, and the "Voelkischer Beobach--ter,-" the official Nazi, newspaper, has attributed the applause to his skilful acting.