HOW CLEAN DRAMA PAYS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 13, 14 January 1913, Page 4

HOW CLEAN DRAMA PAYS.

A Berlin paper has been taking the German public to task over the class of drama which is becoming popular in Germany (says the London correspondent of the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’). The argument seems to be that Germany is weakening herself as against England by allowing sensuality to go unchecked. The German writer believes that there has been a genuine protest in England against the “fleshly school of spectacle.” There certainly has been a noticeable change of late in the style of the turns at the London music halls. The owners of two or three of the largest halls have found that by making the performances such that husbands could bring thetr wives and parents their children, they have tremendously increased the audiences to which they could appeal. Any indecency in the programme within a very short space of time reduces that audience, and that is perhaps the reason why the nude dances which for a time were a part of the programme of nearly every large hall, have disappeared as suddenly as they came. As for the theatres, it has always paid better, in ■England, to produce healthy drama than to introduce the constant appeal to the lower senses. By far the most successful plays of the year in London have been “Bunty Pulls the Strings,” and “Milestones.” Both are plays of a high order of cleverness, both are perfectly clean and fragrant, and both have had exceptionally long runs even for London. Indeed, the popularity of “Milestones” does not yet show the slightest sign of waning.