With War and Licker removed from the list of "What's Going on This
Week," how will mankind spend the long summer evenings? Some advocate
another war. Others recommend a piece of yeast in a glass of
grape-juice. The effect is said to be equally devastating.
But there is a new school, led by Percy Mackaye, which brings forward
a scheme for occupying the spare time of the world which has, at
least, the savor of novelty. It presents the community masque as a
substitute for war. Whenever a neighborhood, or county, feels the old
craving for blood-letting and gas-bombing coming on, a town meeting is
to be called and plans drawn up for the presentation of a masque
entitled "Democracy" or "From Chrysalis to Butterfly." In this simple
way, one and all will be kept out in the open air and will get to know
each other better, thus relieving their bellicose cravings right there
on the village green among themselves, without dragging a foreign
nation into the mess at all. The slogan is "Fight Your Neighbors
First. Why Go Abroad for War?"
The community masque idea is all right in itself. There certainly can
be no harm in dressing up to represent the Three Platoon System, or
the Spirit of Machinery, and reciting free verse to the effect that:
"I am the Three Platoon System. Firemen I represent,
And the clash and clang of the Hook and Ladder Company."
No one could find fault with that, provided that those taking part in
the thing do so of their own free will and understand what they are
doing.
The trouble with the community masque is not so much with the masque
as with the community. For while the masque may be a five star
sporting extra hot from the presses of Percy Mackaye, the community is
the same old community that has been getting together for inter-Sunday
School track-meets and Wig and Footlight Club Amateur Theatricals for
years and years, and the result has always been the same.
Let us say, for instance, that the community of Wimblehurst begins to
feel the lack of a good, rousing war to keep the Ladies' Guild and
the men over thirty-five busy. What could be more natural than to call
in Mr. Mackaye, and say: "What have you got in the way of a nice
masque for a suburban district containing many socially possible
people and others who might do very well in ensemble work?"
Something entitled "The March of Civilization" is selected, because it
calls for Boy Scout uniforms and a Goddess of Liberty costume, all of
which are on hand, together with lots of Red Cross regalia, left over
from the war drives. The plot of the thing concerns the adventures of
the young girl _Civilization_ who leaves her home in the _Neolithic
Period_ accompanied only by her faithful old nurse _Language_ and
_Language's_ little children the _Vowels_ and the _Consonants_. She is
followed all the way from the Neolithic Age to the Present Time by the
evil spirit, _Indigestion_, but, thanks to the helpful offices of the
_Spirits of Capillary Attraction_, and _Indestructibility of Matter_,
she overcomes all obstacles and reaches her goal, _The League of
Nations_, at last.
But during the course of her wanderings, there have been all kinds of
sub-plots which bring the element of suspense into the thing. For
instance, it seems that this person _Indigestion_ has found out
something about _Civilization's_ father which gives him the upper
hand over the girl, and he, together with the two gunmen, _Heat_
and _Humidity_, arrange all kinds of traps for the poor thing to
fall into. But she takes counsel with the kind old lady,
_Self-Determination of Peoples_, and is considerably helped by the low
comedy character, _Obesity_, who always appears at just the right
moment. So in the end, there is a big ensemble, involving Boy Scouts,
representatives of those Allies who happen to be in good standing in
that particular month, seven boys and girls personifying the twelve
months of the year, Red Cross workers, the Mayor's Committee of
Welcome, a selection of Major Prophets, children typifying the ten
different ways of cooking an egg, and the all-pervading _Spirit of the
Post-Office Department_, seated on a daïs in the rear and watching
over the assemblage with kindly eyes and an armful of bricks.
This, then, is in brief outline, "The March of Civilization," selected
for presentation by the Community Council of Wimblehurst. It is to be
done on the edge of the woods which line the golf-course, and on
paper, the thing shapes up rather well.
Considerable hard feeling arises, however, over the choice of the
children to play the parts of the _Vowels_ and the _Consonants_. It
is, of course, not possible to have all the vowels and consonants
represented, as they would clutter up the stage and might prove
unwieldy in the allegretto passages. A compromise is therefore
effected by personifying only the more graceful ones, like _S_ and the
lower-case _f_, and this means that a certain discrimination must be
used in selecting the actors. It also means that a great many little
girls are going to be disappointed and their mothers' feelings
outraged.
Little Alice Withstanley is chosen to play the part of the _Craft
Guild Movement in Industry_, showing the rise of coöperation and unity
among the working-classes. She is chosen because she has blonde hair
which can be arranged in braids down her back, obviously essential to
a proper representation of industrial team-work as a moving force in
the world's progress. It so happens, however, that the daughter of the
man who is cast for _Humidity_ has had her eyes on this ingénue part
ever since the printed text was circulated and had virtually been
promised it by the Head of the House Committee of the Country Club,
through whose kindness the grounds were to be used for the
performance. There is a heated discussion over the merits of the two
contestants between Mrs. Withstanley and the mother of the betrayed
girl, which results in the withdrawal of the latter's offer to
furnish Turkish rugs for the Oriental Decadence scene.
[Illustration: "There is a heated discussion between Mrs. Withstanley
and the mother of the betrayed girl."]
Following this, the rougher element of the community--enlisted to take
part in the scenes showing the building of the Pyramids and the first
Battle of Bull Run--appear at one of the early rehearsals in a state
of bolshevik upheaval, protesting against the unjust ruling which
makes them attend all rehearsals and wait around on the side hill
until their scenes are on, keeping them inactive sometimes from two to
three hours, according to the finish with which the principals get
through the prologue and opening scenes showing the Creation. The
proletariat present an ultimatum, saying that the Committee in charge
can either shorten their waiting hours or remove the restrictions on
crap-shooting on the side-hill during their periods of inaction.
There is a meeting of the Director and his assistants who elect a
delegation to confer with the striking legionaries, with the result
that no compromise is reached, the soviet withdraws from the masque in
a body, threatening to set fire to the grass on the first night of the
performance.
During the rehearsals the husband of the woman who is portraying
_Winter Wheat_ is found wandering along the brookside with her sister
cereal _Spring Wheat_, which, of course, makes further polite
coöperation between these two staples impossible, and the Dance of the
Food Stuffs has to be abandoned at the last moment. This adds to the
general tension.
Three nights before the first performance the Director calls every one
to a meeting in the trophy room of the Club-house and says that, so
far as he is concerned, the show is off. He has given up his time to
come out here, night after night, in an attempt to put on a masque
that will be a credit to the community and a significant event in the
world of art, and what has he found? Indifference, irresponsibility,
lack of coöperation, non-attendance at rehearsals, and a spirit of
_laissez-faire_ in the face of which it is impossible to produce a
successful masque. Consideration for his own reputation, as well as
that of the township, makes it necessary for him to throw the whole
thing over, here and now.
[Illustration: "The audience is composed chiefly of the aged and the
infirm."]
The Chairman of the Committee then gets up and cries a little, and
says that he is sure that if every one agrees to pull together during
these last three days and to attend rehearsals faithfully and to try
to get plenty of sleep, Mr. Parsleigh, the coach, will consent to help
them through with the performance, and he asks every one who is
willing to coöperate to say "Aye." Every one says "Aye" and Mr.
Parsleigh is won over.
As for the masque itself, it is given, of course; and as most of the
able-bodied people of the community are taking part, the audience is
composed chiefly of the aged and the infirm, who catch muscular
rheumatism from sitting out-of-doors and are greatly bored, except
during those scenes when their relatives are taking part. The masque
is hailed as a great success, however, in spite of the fact that the
community has been disrupted and social life made impossible until the
next generation grows up and agrees to let bygones be bygones.
But as a substitute for war, it has no equal.