The French Theatre

Horowhenua Chronicle, 10 July 1911, Page 4

The French Theatre

An article in the Age from a Paris correspondent makes one realise, how large a place tlie theatre occupies in the life of the Par.isien. The fertility of French dramatists is astonishing. The fifteen or twenty dramatists whose names are .household words in France produce from one to three plays every year, and there is a host of minor winters, any of whom may become famous. Long runs are unknown. .Even, if a play is a success, it Soon makes way for another; thus there is great variety, and a strong demand for new plays. At the two official theatres the programme is changed nearly every night, amd certain afternoons and evenings are set aside for the production of the masterpieces of tho French drama from Corneille onwards. One of tfoese theatres devotes Saturday afternoon to the -production of a play fay an author whose work has not been staged before. The people have the keenest interest in tJie theatre. One of tlie most widelyread papers in France is the CWioedia, a theatrical daily, published in Paris. The information it supplies is quite different to the gossip alyout the popular actor-manager or the queen of the music haills, which fills so many columns in English weeklies and magazines. Connoedia treats tho dramatic art quite seriously as our sporting newspapers treat sport. It is, in its way, the .most-weighty, and I should venture to say, the most accurate newspaper in. France. The writer has the highest admiration for French acting, and recognises tho talent of French hut he finds the play depressing. In spite of Rostand, romanticism is dead, ami one sees neither gloomy problem plays, or pieces renin rkable for their cynical immortality. The former reflect a regrettable tendency in French affairs, to ibelievo that all's > wrong with the world, without making any attempt to set it right.