Our Stage and Its Critics

Our Stage and Its Critics

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Title: Our Stage and Its Critics
Author: "E.F.S." of "The Westminster Gazette"
Release Date: September 9, 2004 [EBook #13408]
Language: English
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OUR STAGE AND ITS CRITICS
BY
"E.F.S."
OF "THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE"

_1910_

PREFACE
Whilst reading the proof-sheets of these articles I have been oppressed
by the thought that they give a gloomy idea about the state of our Stage.

Yet I am naturally sanguine. Indeed, no one taking a deep interest in
our drama could have written for a score or so of years about it unless
of a naturally sanguine temperament. There has been great progress
during my time, yet we still are far from possessing a modern national
drama creditable to us. Some imagine that the British have no inborn
genius for writing drama, or acting it, and look upon those dramatists
and players whose greatness cannot be denied as mere exceptions to a
rule. Without alleging that at the moment we have a Shakespeare, a
Garrick or a Siddons, I assert confidently that we own dramatists and
players able, if rightly used, to make our theatre worthy of our country
and also that the misuse of them is appalling. For very many years the
history of the English stage has been chiefly a record of waste, of gross
commercialism and of honest efforts ruined by adherence to
mischievous traditions: the Scottish and Irish stage have been mere
reflections of our own.
At the moment Ireland is making a brave and remarkably successful
effort at emancipation, and during the last few years has laid the
foundations of a National Theatre and built a good deal upon them.
Scotland lags a little, yet the energy and enthusiasm of Mr Alfred
Wareing and the citizens of Glasgow have enabled them to create an
institution not unlikely to serve as the home of a real Scots drama. They
offer to the native playwright an opportunity of showing that a national
drama--not a drama merely echoing the drama of other lands--lies
inherent in the race. Who knows that they may not induce that wayward
man of genius, J.M. Barrie, to become the parent of Scots drama by
honestly and sincerely using his rare gifts as dramatist in an effort to
express the pathos and the humour, the courage and the shyness, the
shrewdness and the imagination, and also the less agreeable qualities
and characteristics of our brothers across the border.
And England? I have little first-hand knowledge of the provinces, but
with such as I possess, and the aid of the Era Annual and the Stage
Year Book, can state unhesitatingly that the position is very
unsatisfactory. Admirable, valuable work is being done bravely by
Miss Horniman at Manchester; Mr F.R. Benson and his company
devotedly carry the banner of Shakespeare through the land; but in the
main the playhouses of the provinces and great cities of England offer
little more than echoes of the London theatres, and such original works

as are produced in them generally are mere experiments made on the
dog before a piece is presented in London. In this respect, the suburbs
resemble the provinces, although Mr J.B. Mulholland courageously
makes efforts to give Hammersmith something new and good. The
Coronet has seen some valuable ventures--perhaps Notting Hill is not a
suburb--and at the moment is devoted to the production of real
novelties.
In the West End theatres of London the position at first sight seems
desperate. During the last twenty years, in consequence of the
intervention of middlemen, rents have risen 100 per cent.; owing to the
folly of managers the salaries of the company have increased to a
similar extent; whilst the cost of scenery, costumes and the like also has
grown enormously. Indeed, it is probably an under-statement to allege
that the money spent in running a theatre on the customary commercial
lines is twice as great as it was in 1890. Yet the price of seats has not
been raised. Consequently theatre management has become a huge
gamble, in which there are few prizes, and the amount of money lost
annually is great. Naturally, under such circumstances the principal,
almost the only, aim of the ordinary manager is to please the masses.
Many concessions are made to the wishes of the crowd, and by way of