Judge — September 15, 1917 — page 17: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

BET WEEN By CYRIL last exelainied the Intense Young Man. “What piece are you speaking of?” inquired the Old Foxy he Deluge.’ I saw it day before yesterday, and haven't been able to think of anything else since. It's wonderful! You have heard about it, I suppose?” “Very little.” “Well, it is a sort of realistic satire. The scene is laid in a saloon in a town out West. A group of people of contrasting types—a lawyer, a vaudeville actor, a wheat speculator, a girl of the streets, and others—happen in just as a terrific storm: br and they imagine, from various flood signs that follow, that a great new dam has given way and that the saloon, with its concrete walls and iron sliding shutters, is submerged. Thrown together in this way and thinking they are all caught in a death trap, these people behave as human beings naturally would y one of them, from the crooked lawyer to the hard as-nails saloon-keeper, turns suddenly good. Just when they have all become noble-hearted and virtuous, the way the characters do in Bret Harte’s ‘Outcasts of Poker Flat,’ the electric lights and tele phone and ticker start working again, and they discover that the supposed deluge was only a storm. Whereupon they all promptly slip back to their former natures. It's a marvelous revelation of human selfishness. You must see it!” “Perhaps I ought to,” said the Old Foxy slowly. “Perhaps [ ought to, And yet, why? Do I need to be taught, at my time of life, that people can be a pretty mean lot? I'm sorry to say, we have a real play!” I don’t. So when I go to the theatre [am not eager to find myself present at an indictment of the human race, no matter how brilliantly and artistically the thiag is carried out. I go to the theatre with the same purpose that I have in mind when I yo to « concert or pick up a book of poems: I want to be lifted out of the everyday world, rather than have its crudities and sordidness brought home to me.” “Then you'd rather the stage dealt with sentimentality instead of facts?” “No. quaintness, poetry. Have you seen it?” “But that is a musical comedy “Yes, a genuine musical comedy a-chorus stupidity that Broad whimsicality, ‘Maytime." Not sentimentality—but fancy, charm, I'll tell you what I enjoyed lately: I thought we were discussing. not the tawdry vaudeville with calls by that name.” CU RT AINS INDREW said the Critic, who had been listening. “Are you two arguing the case of Realism vs. Romance? “Yes, w re,” replied the Old Fogy, wit twinkle, “But now we'll place it before the Higher Court. What is your learned opinion the subject?” The Critic laughed. “Mine? Why, I agree with you both. The drama should stick to the facts of life; yet life ‘as ix’ is apt to be unlovely.”” “Then you favor a compromis “Not exactly. My theory is this. Just as mankind is made up of two sexes, so the drama—and, for all that matter, all literature and art—is divided into two es,’ Realism and Romance. Realism is bluff, downright, logical, unimaginative, lacking in amenity, but is alluring, intuitive, fanciful, soaring on wings of Each is the complement of the other; each is necessary to A stage that does not offer both of these during the same “Good evening, friend: the spirit, the world. season is not truly fulfilling its function: for without the counterbalan cing influence of Romance, Realism sinks to coarseness and soulless- ness; and without the restraint of Realism, Romance wanders off into effeteness and mawkishness. “And so ‘The Deluge’ and *‘Maytime,’ being splendid examples of these two types, deserve the heartiest sort of appreciation. “The Deluge’ is really a masterly production. Every detail, from the admirable stage setting by Robert Edmund Jones to the words and actions of the least important character, is thoroughly consistent, has the stamp of genuineness “But ‘Maytime’ fairly captivated me. Despite a poor fourth act, it is the most enchanting thing of the kind that I have seen in many years. I felt as though I had stepped out of Broadway into the s fragrant air of an old rose-garden. It is exquisite. The story is charming, the music is pretty, the humor is gay and delicate—especi- ally when delivered by that master mummer, William Norris—the hero can really sing and act, and Peggy Wood is altogether delightful “Adolph Bolm’s ‘Ballet Intime’ is another excellent example of Romance—in this case, the magic beauty and enchantment of an imaginary Orient. Even so grim a play as ‘The Knife’ is mainly Ro- mance of a detective and medica! sort masquerading as Realism.” “But tell me,” said the Intense Young Man. “Realism criticizes life. Can Romance do that?” “Yes. The very fact that it i: Romance means that it is a criti- cism of life. Tt presents. things 1s they ought to be.”