THE DRAMATIC CRITIC
An Attack upon him
After careful consideration, and almost taking the trouble of rereading
some of my little essays, we have failed to discover exactly why the
letter set out hereafter was written. Apparently the articles have been
a little bitter concerning what some of us call commercial drama, even
rather ferocious about a recent crop of plays.
Certainly it seems well that the other side should be heard, that the
middle-class sensualist--perhaps "the average hedonist" is a better
translation of "_l'homme moyen sensual_"--should be allowed to express
his views; for one is disinclined to attach importance to the Philistine
observations in the theatrical trade papers or in the interviews with
managers. At the same time, some doubts are possible concerning the
letter; it seems to contain some implicit evidence that it was concocted
by somebody holding a brief, by a person accustomed to controversy; it
is written on the Sports Club notepaper, and merely signed "A
Middle-Aged Pleasure-Seeker."
"DEAR SIR,--I have read a great deal about the theatres in _The
Westminster Gazette_, signed by 'E.F.S.' I take in the paper because I
disagree with its views on all topics--particularly the drama--and I
like to hear the other side. Why have you not got a sense of humour?
Why do you not cease flogging that dead horse, the British Drama? Do you
think you can flog it into life? Do you believe that British Drama, as
you understand it, ever did live, or ever will? I don't. There is too
much common sense in London.
"Why do you persist in girding at Mr Tree because he gives beautiful
scenery instead of what you think fine plays? Lots of people enjoy his
entertainments. I don't myself, for I agree with you that Shakespeare
and Phillips are tiresome. I notice, by the way, that you even begin to
gibe at the scenery and suggest that it is not beautiful because it is
too pretty, which is a mere paradox, and of course absurd. Why do you
keep howling against melodrama and musical comedy?
"Above all, what grounds have you for supposing that we can have, or
ought to have, a drama based upon true observation of life? Every one of
us, every day of his existence, is the hero of a drama based upon the
true observation of life, and a very tiresome drama too, as a rule, and
we all want to see dramas in the theatre that take us out of ourselves.
You seem to think that we can and ought to have a drama like the novels
of Meredith, which I believe nobody ever reads, or the pictures of
Whistler, that are simply ridiculous, or the ugly music of Strauss--I
don't mean the one who writes waltzes.
"Even assuming that there are people who like such novels, or pictures,
or music, your case is none the better, for ordinary people don't get
trapped into being bored by them, and such works can live without
general support, whilst drama has to appeal to the bulk of us, and you
cannot stick over the proscenium-arch some phrase such as 'Philistines
will be irritated.'
"Of course there are people who think drama ought to be educational,
and preach moral lessons, and so on. Well, the popular drama is pretty
moral, except, perhaps, musical comedy, which does seem a little
topsy-turvy in its lessons; and the Censor prevents politics being
introduced or religion being attacked. Every attempt to teach what you
would call moral lessons must fall because we know that after all the
play is not real. I confess that the romantic and the sentimental rather
bore me; but you cannot expect a fifty-year-old stockbroker to be
sentimental or romantic. My wife and daughters enjoy that sort of thing,
and they simply worship Mr Lewis Waller, of whom I get a bit jealous at
times.
"I like the exciting pieces and the funny farces, and all the pretty
dresses and pretty undresses and the pretty girls and pretty music of
the musical comedies.
"You appear to imagine that the business of the theatre is to make the
audience think; perhaps that would be all right if it appealed merely to
idle people, but ninety-nine folk out of a hundred who go to a theatre
in the evening have already done a day's work; even those who don't earn
their living are pretty tired after dinner. So it is clear that there
are not people enough to support a drama which it is difficult to
understand. Moreover, you forget that when we have to read, as sometimes
happens, the high-class books, we can skip the dull parts; indeed, I get
to know all that I need about the important books by reading the reviews
that tear the guts out of them and merely leave the padding behind; but,
unfortunately, you cannot skip the dull parts of a play unless it is a
very well-known work, like _Hamlet_ or _Macbeth_, when, if a man has a
good seat, he can escape quite a lot of the philosophising passages.
"The solid truth is that we English, like the Americans, have too much
good sense to worry about drama. There are a certain number of cranks
and faddists who get an unholy delight out of eccentric plays, but they
are few in the Anglo-Saxon countries, where good sense reigns. We only
take fairy tales seriously when we are children; we never get
intoxicated by ideas; this is where we differ from the Continentals. Art
is all very well in its way and in its proper place. I like a good
picture, or a good song, or a rattling story as well as anybody; but art
ought not to be shoved down our throats. You will observe that the
Americans, really a great people, are like us in this respect, and none
of their plays--at least those that come over here--belong to the
intellectual drama about which you rave. When they want to be
intellectual they play Shakespeare, not giving us more of the Bard than
is absolutely necessary, but letting us have full measure of pretty
music, scenery and dresses. Augustin Daly used to do it perfectly.
"By all means have a little theatre of your own and enjoy dull plays in
it, but don't denounce our cakes and ale, or think yourself any better
than people with healthy tastes who can enjoy such works as _Mrs Dot_,
or _The Explorer_, or _The Duke's Motto_. And what does it matter where
the plays come from any more than where the nuts come from? Anyone would
think you were a rabid Protectionist who reads your howls about imported
plays. Art is universal, not local--I read that in some real high-toned
book--and if a play is good, don't worry whether its author is French or
German or American. You don't grumble if he is Norwegian. Why not? Do
be consistent even if you cannot be broad-minded. And, lastly, let the
Censor alone; you have flung enough mud at him; I am tired of reading
energetic attacks which you know quite well are mere beating of the
wind. Your unfortunate reader,
"A MIDDLE-AGED PLEASURE-SEEKER"
It is fair to add that the amiable correspondent is inaccurate in some
of his allegations. We have never said that the plays of Shakespeare or
Phillips are tiresome, or that Mr Tree's scenery is not beautiful
because it is too pretty, but have hinted that it is sometimes too
academically or conventionally pretty. And we have not protested against
the importation of plays, but against the importation of rubbish no
better than our rubbish of a similar character. We have not demanded
that all drama should be intellectual, but merely that the intellectual
should be given a fair hearing.
Why he is Disliked
It is to be feared that the dramatic critics are not really popular;
people have even spoken of them as parasites, without displaying a nice
acquaintance with language. On this side of the footlights most people
regard us as mere beefeaters, but taste the fare approved by us
suspiciously. There is a lurking doubt in the general mind as to our
honesty.
The people on the other side know that the "champagne and chicken" idea
is ill-founded: perhaps they even regret this occasionally, but they
love us none the better. Clement Scott used to be very bitter in print
about the ingratitude of players; there was an article by him
complaining that those who loved him on account of half-a-dozen
laudatory notices turned round and reviled him because of an
unflattering phrase in a seventh, and the topic was one upon which he
had a means of knowledge quite unequalled. Services weigh less than
disservices.
Under such circumstances, mindful of the fact that our remarks are read
very closely by people whom they affect deeply, it is most important
that our censure should appear just--to others. We ought to be extremely
careful that those whom we blame cannot point out that upon their face
our remarks are unfair. It is not always easy to remember this,
particularly when one is young, and sometimes it is difficult to
sacrifice the pleasure of a neat phrase because it may do a little
injustice. When looking at such a neat, crushing sentence as "A better
company would have been wasted upon such a play, a better play upon such
a company," one wonders anxiously whether, in order to write it, the
critic may not have been unjust to somebody.
There are dangerous phrases such as this one from a notice upon a play
given a little while ago--it runs as follows:--"Mr X. did everything
that mortal actor could do for this indifferent comedy. Whenever he had
a chance to be funny he was very funny. More than that, he almost made a
live figure of a dummy, and that means that Mr X. did more for his
author than his author had done for him." How on earth could the critic
know whether his suggestions were true? The play was new; the part taken
by Mr X. had never been acted by anybody else; there was no basis for
comparison. Obviously there was no foundation for suggesting that from
the performance it could be seen that the actor did anything not
intended by the author. He spoke the author's text, and nothing
indicates that he introduced any "business" unsuggested by him. The
piece happens to have been printed for private circulation, so that one
can make the assertion confidently.
What means, then, could the writer have of coming to the conclusion that
the part, as acted, was any better than the part as written, or that the
actor had done more or less than carry out admirably the ideas of the
dramatist?
There are instances, of course, where a playwright does owe more to the
actor than the actor to him. In _L'Auberge des Adrets_, known in England
as _Robert Macaire_, Frédéric Lemaître put the author under an immense
debt, perhaps without earning his gratitude, by deliberately converting
a turgid, inept, hopeless melodrama into an almost immortal lucrative
burlesque. In _Our American Cousin_ Sothern worked up a minor part, that
of Dundreary, into something like the whole play, with the result that a
piece which might have died in a month lived many years.
It is well known that in certain classes of musico-dramatic pieces the
so-called authors expect the leading low comedian to find his own jokes,
or most of them, and certainly Mr Arthur Roberts and others have
contributed a bigger share of the effective dialogue than that of the
persons supposed to have written the book. In such cases the critic has
grounds for suggesting that Mr X. "made a live figure of a dummy," and
that means that "Mr X. did more for his author than his author had done
for him." The case under discussion is quite different. There was
nothing to indicate that the actor did more than carry out admirably
the very clever ideas of the author--an author, by-the-by, who happens
to be very meticulous about having his ideas carried out, and therefore
is in the habit of attending rehearsals and expressing his opinion at
them. It is regrettable that criticism should be written in this
fashion, since it causes a feeling of distrust. Probably the writer had
no desire to be unjust, or even unfair in the comparatively venial way
of doing rather less than justice to the author in his desire to do
rather more to the actor.
It may be urged, by way of answer, that all of us at times are in peril
of undervaluing the efforts of the player by suggesting that he has not
got full measure out of his part. Perhaps we do occasionally some
injustice in this respect; we may imagine that a character ought to act
better than it is acted when in fact the author has failed to carry out
his intentions, and it is impossible for the player to make the part
seem other than that of a dummy. Even in cases where we make such a
mistake there may be grounds for the opinion expressed. It cannot be
shown _a priori_ that our opinion is unjust, though a failure afterwards
by several actors of incontestable excellence to give life to the part
might prove that we were wrong. In other words, the criticism upon the
face of it is fair, and here is its distinction from what is being
blamed. Possibly it looks as if the whole matter were one of form; even
if this be so, the fact is no answer. In some aspects of life it is more
important to seem just than to be just. It is of real moment that
nothing should be done to diminish the by no means extravagant weight of
dramatic criticism either in the opinion of the public or that of
authors and players.
His Honesty
A little while ago there was a meeting of creditors. The debtor was a
dramatic critic. There was a great deal of talking. The assets were in
inverse ratio to the debts and one creditor, registered under the
Moneylenders Act, was very wrathful. Time after time he kept making his
suggestion that the debtor was able to get something from his friends
wherewith to pay his enemies; and at last, under some pressure, he spoke
clearly.
He suggested that as the debtor was still the dramatic critic of an
important paper he ought to go and see some of the leading managers and
get assistance from them. The speaker was confident that they would
gladly advance a substantial sum to a man in the debtor's position
without any expectation of direct repayment. What happened after this,
of course, was a matter of no importance; but it was interesting and
surprising to find a man of business believing that the dramatic critics
are easily corruptible, corrupt and corrupted. We are very honest,
without being entitled to boast of our honesty; we are like the ladies
who from time to time on the stage are bitterly attacked by a heroine
with a past. We are ferociously virtuous because we have not been
sufficiently charming to be tempted. The phrase "chicken and champagne"
still lingers, and I have heard it suggested, in the country, that after
the play is over we are regaled by a banquet behind the scenes:
"regaled" was the word actually used. It is not difficult to answer that
suggestion since most of the critics who count are busily consuming
midnight oil, not champagne, as soon as the play is over, and then go to
bed tired. Mr Archer, in feigned indignation, once complained that he
had never been insulted by the offer of a bribe, and, if my memory is
accurate, he even suggested a doubt whether there existed a manager who
would lend him half-a-crown! He certainly underrated his weight as well
as his value. Yet there is a memorable utterance of a manager to the
effect that those of the critics worth bribing could not be bribed, and
those willing to be bribed were not worth bribing. Still, there have
been instances of efforts. A manager, now no more, once sent an
expensive trifle at Christmas to one of us, who, embarrassed by it,
indulged in a graceful but rather costly victory by sending a still more
expensive trifle to the manager on his birthday, and this closed the
incident. Into the nice question whether and how far, apart from
anything so vulgar as bribery, we are always strictly impartial I do not
care to venture; it may be that even Brutus was sometimes "influenced"
without knowing it.
It is painful to be honest and yet suspected. The other day it was
brutally suggested that the formation of the Society of Dramatic Critics
had some connexion with the coming into force of the Act for the
suppression of bribery. Foreigners always presume that we have itching
palms, salved in due course by the managers or by the players. Not long
ago one of us received a letter from a Continental artist saying that
she was about to appear in London; that for a long time past she had
received much pleasure and profit from his articles in _The ----_: that
she was very anxious that an article concerning her should appear in
_The ----_; and that if he would be so charming as to arrange it, she
would be glad to pay any price--the word "any" was underlined.
No photograph accompanied the letter. No answer came to his reply;
probably she was surprised at the attitude adopted by him in referring
her to the advertisement manager.
It used to be--perhaps is still--the custom in France for players and
dramatists to call upon the critics before or immediately after the
_premières_; and not long ago some of the French actresses in London
sent their cards to the representatives of the leading English
newspapers. The most charitable would guess that these visits to the
dramatic critic sometimes influence his notice to an undesirable extent.
It has been said, no doubt untruly, that the rate of pay of the critics
of Paris is based in part upon the supposition that their post gives
them collateral advantages. In England the popular idea is that the
critics are paid vast sums by their editors and also enjoy these little
extras.
This idea is possibly the explanation of the fact that editors sometimes
get letters from people offering to act as dramatic critics without any
salary at all. Apparently the writers of such letters think that the
work would be well enough paid for otherwise. Of course they may be
merely sufferers from the curious first-night mania which induces a
great many people to go to what, as a rule, is the worst but one of the
performances of a play. The second, we know, is absolutely the worst,
since the performers are suffering from a reaction and fatigue, and
there has been no time for improvements to be made in consequence of
criticism, amateur and professional. Undoubtedly, in the case of many
people, the desire to be present on the first night is merely a snobbish
wish to take part in what journalists call "a function," and a large
number of first-nighters would attend certain _premières_ even if
absolutely sure that the performance would be tedious to them. They are
present to be seen, and not to see, although nine out of ten of them are
of no importance.
The topic is one of delicacy, since everyone is anxious, naturally, not
to write anything which could enable his friends to suggest that he is
vexed because nobody has attempted to bribe him. The supreme humiliation
is for the person who is willing to sin and never gets tempted. It is a
little curious, seeing what large sums are at stake, that the new
Bribery Act may be regarded as needless so far as we are concerned. In
the past there may have been dishonesty; indeed, there was in the case
of one or two very well-known critics. The best story in connection with
this attempted briber relates to one of the most esteemed of our craft,
a writer who has lately retired from the active service of life. A
manager sent to him a present of game, and the critic, feeling
embarrassed, applied to his editor, Sir John Robinson, for advice. Sir
John, who was rich enough in sense of humour, told him that he had
better eat the birds promptly in order that corruption might not be
added to bribery.
In the fact that, except in rare cases, no efforts are made to bribe
London critics there is an agreeable tribute to their honesty. A good
many thousands of pounds are at stake; there are not a dozen critics
worth bribing; the production budget would only require a small
proportionate increase to provide quite a handsome sum to the dozen, yet
the offer is not made.
The uncharitable will say that there are not a dozen, or even two or
three, worth bribing; yet, although from time to time managers, or
rather actor-managers, allege that the critics have little influence,
nearly all the managers, actor-managers included, occasionally admit
that even if the critics cannot make plays succeed they may be able to
kill some.
After all, a failure may be more or less disastrous: the receipts of a
piece which runs only three weeks may amount to a thousand pounds more
or less; and, using a slightly Irish phrase, the three weeks may be
either a fortnight or a month, during which there are gross takings
greater or less, while the disbursements are a constant figure. Probably
the critics could not kill a production--the word "production" is ugly,
but needed to cover both play and performance--which has real elements
of popularity in it, assuming that the management has the bold wisdom to
run it against bad notices. Moreover, the most amiable criticisms in the
world could do no more than mitigate the disaster of an essentially
unpopular production.
Some managers place a rather extravagant reliance upon our fairness. Not
only do they dissemble their love for some of us, but they even kick us
upstairs, and some of us are compelled to pretend that we can see a play
better from the dress circle than the stalls. On a first night in
certain theatres there are unimportant deadheads in the best seats of
the stalls, and the representatives of great English newspapers are
hidden behind pillars or put in what, after the first night, will be
fourth or fifth rows of the pit, or sent to Coventry in the dress
circle--sometimes back rows of it--and one may well feel proud to belong
to a craft in the honesty of which the managers have such profound
confidence.
There are moments when the thought comes that managers put some of us
into very bad seats because they feel that, conscious of unmerited
ill-treatment, we will write opinions more favourable than we really
hold, for fear lest what we think our true opinions have been unjustly
affected by our ill-treatment. Since this was written, one of us heard
something quaint about the craft. He was in the torture chair of the
dentist, who was talking of the theatres, ignorant of the fact that his
victim was a dramatic critic--such is fame--and he spoke about the
difficulty of getting tickets for a first-night, and said that most of
the seats are given to the press and the only way is to go to the box
office on the evening of the first night, since some tickets are
generally sold back to the management by the poor hacks anxious to earn
a dishonest penny. The sufferer did not contradict him or tell him that
most of us get only one ticket and have to use it. You see, no wise man
disputes with his "gum architect," who has too many methods of avenging
himself if defeated in a controversy. No man is a hero to his dentist.
His Abolition
The sun was on and the fish were off. Strenuous efforts had failed to
put the angler in the position of the gentleman _qui peut brâmer ses
amis_. Dr Tench, the fresh-water physician, whose medical powers have
been somewhat overrated, though he can keep himself alive for an
astonishing length of time out of the water, declined the most
abominably tempting baits. The pike were only represented by baby
jacklets: the rudd and the roach were rare and almost microscopic; as
for the carp, of course one did not expect to catch the sly, shy
creatures. The friend who had been lured to fish in the big lake,
modestly called a pond, put down his rod, and, after a few remarks about
the fish, which ought not to be set out in print, said in a meditative
way, "I wonder what would happen if there were no dramatic critics." To
which came the reply, that there would be no performances, since
performances without an audience are almost unimaginable, and every
spectator acts to some extent as a dramatic critic.
By the way, it is a curious distinction of the actor's art that he needs
an audience more than any other artist. The singer, violinist, and other
executants of music, if they really love music, can to almost the full
extent of such love enjoy performing to themselves alone as much as
before a crowd. The painter and sculptor have a keen pleasure in doing
their work and seek no spectator save a model; it is true they desire
the world to see the child of their efforts, but that is partly because
they are creators, as well as executants. Certainly, the singer would
sing for pure pleasure in singing if stranded alone upon a desert
island, and marooned men would write books or music if they could, and
stranded painters would paint. Would an actor in the position of
Robinson Crusoe act to amuse himself--at least, would he do so before he
had his man Friday as an involuntary and perhaps ungratified spectator?
The hapless _piscator_--the word ceased to be pretentious after Walton's
use of it--refused to bait his hook again, and said, "I mean, what would
happen if there were none of you professional chaps who write criticisms
that nobody reads except the other dramatic critics?" To remark that if
only the critics read criticisms the suppression of criticism obviously
would be needless was an easy triumph, so he continued in a grumbling
way,
"What I mean is--suppose that after a play you merely gave some sort of
account of the plot and did not say whether the piece was good or bad,
or proper or shocking, or how it was acted, and so on, would it make
any difference? I mean," he added, hastily anticipating a question,
"would people go more or less to the theatre, or would the kind of plays
and acting change? I suppose it would make a little difference; would
the difference be great?"
The answer was "Yes."
After all, the public may award the farthings, but the critics are of
weight upon the question of fame; the crowd to some extent acts as jury,
the critics are judges; and to pursue the figure, whilst the verdicts
are of immediate influence, the judgments remain on record. In the
future it will often be difficult to find out what were the verdicts;
but there will be no doubt about the judgments. Moreover, whilst, as in
the law courts, the verdicts are often due to prejudice and to mere
temporary causes, the reasoned judgments, when and so far as reasonable,
are based on a firmer foundation.
Probably the theatres would suffer, since there would be less talk about
them. For the average Englishman is timid in opinion, and, unless
fortified by ideas gleaned from the papers, scamps his conversation on
topics concerning which opinions may be expressed. When he has exhausted
such subjects as the weather, his health, his private affairs and those
of his neighbours, he is accustomed to bestow upon his listeners, in a
distorted form, the opinions concerning books, plays, pictures, etc.,
that he has read in the papers and understood imperfectly; and he
certainly would talk far less about plays if he had not the aid of the
critic's views.
Of course he would be able to call a piece "awfully good," "simply
ripping," "sweetly pretty," "beastly rot," "awfully dull," and to use
ill-assorted adjectives concerning the players; but beyond this he
would hardly venture for fear of uttering absurdities. A curious humour
is that people who have read the opinions which he is misrepresenting,
in the papers from which he got them, will listen without patent signs
of boredom, and in their turn utter second-hand opinions on similar
subjects.
Clearly, then, talk on the topic would languish but for our promptings;
and if the theatres were less talked of there would be fewer visitors to
them. Furthermore, if there were to be no newspaper criticisms of plays
or players, the gossip about them would be diminished even in the
papers, for the thrilling personal paragraphs would lose their point if
given without adjectives, and adjectives involve criticism of one kind
or another.
Would the pieces and performances be affected by the suppression of
criticism? Certainly, to some extent. For even if the professional
critics tell little more than the amateurs who offer friendly advice,
their remarks have a greater weight--partly, indeed, because in a sense
they are not gratuitous. All observers have noticed the fact that we
rarely act on the opinion of mere friends, however sound. Moreover, no
one can deny that when the critics, belonging as they do to many schools
of thought and thoughtlessness, agree, they are likely to be correct.
Even putting them on a humbler level, and assuming that some merely
express the views of the public, they are serviceable, since the
opinions of the world at large are almost wordless, and the author or
player unguided save by those immediately around him, and unable to
learn more of the public ideas concerning a play or performance than is
shown by inarticulate noises and by good or bad houses, would remain
curiously ignorant of errors against art and mistakes as to the desires
of playgoers.
No doubt, to voice the public's thoughts is not our loftiest task, but
it is useful to do so, and there can be no denial of the fact that we
know very well what the public likes. It has often been said that we
make remarkably bad prophecies as to the fate of plays, but some of the
instances quoted are not in point, since they concern works ultimately
licked into shape, which, but for the adverse notices, would have
remained unchanged till early death ended them.
Real mistakes are made by us in this respect, but generally the mistake
is in believing that a piece will be successful which, however, proves
to be a failure; we overrate the public taste, or fail to take into
account matters quite foreign to the qualities of an entertainment which
nevertheless determine its fate.
Of the more important aspect of the critic's mission, his duty in trying
to aid in the development of art, the luckless angler was not thinking.
Certainly, few, even of those who denounce the critics, will, if they
think the matter over, refuse to admit that to the public, the players,
and even authors, the humble craftsmen render useful services, quite
apart from the value of the work they do for art, by their power of
giving voice to the public, whom they study carefully and under
favourable circumstances, and by exercising to some extent the function
of censor in addition to those of beefeater and guide.
The Threatened Theatrical Trust
Somebody has forwarded from America a newspaper article called "The
Theatrical Syndicate's Reply to Its Critics," to which is given the
signature of Mr Marc Klaw, partner of Messrs Klaw & Erlanger,
well-known American managers. During the last few years _The Referee_
has been uttering a note of warning about the danger of the
establishment in London or England of a theatrical trust. Other papers
have handled the subject, and in particular an interview with Mr David
Belasco has appeared, in which he explained and vehemently defended his
attitude towards the theatrical trust in the United States.
Mr Klaw's article is amusing in its unconscious humour. In one part he
denies the existence of certain facts, whilst in another he attempts to
show that their existence is beneficial to everybody. The important
feature of it is a candid admission that the aims of the syndicate are
entirely commercial and that he, one of its principal members, looks
upon the theatre from no other point of view than that of business.
"The theatre," he says, "is governed by the rules and observances of all
other commercial enterprises. It is not out to dictate to public taste.
It is out to satisfy the public demand. While even such a purely
business undertaking must be hedged about with essential suggestions of
artistic refinement, I do not believe that the public demands of us that
we should give over our commercialism. Moreover, the public would have
no such right."
There is no need to criticise Mr Klaw's style: still it is rather
amusing to think that he sometimes discusses the literary quality of his
wares.
If there be any chance of our theatres becoming subject to a syndicate
which replies officially to its critics in such a fashion there is
serious danger to be considered. Now, according to certain statements by
Mr Belasco and by writers in and to _The Referee_, the Theatrical
Syndicate does, in fact, control to a very great extent the drama in
America, and there is no real doubt about the accuracy of the
proposition that the drama in the States is in a worse plight than the
drama in London. If, judging by the ordinary picked American productions
over here, the evidence were otherwise insufficient, the tone of Mr
Klaw's article would render it satisfying.
According to Mr Klaw, the Syndicate has conferred certain advantages
upon all persons connected with the theatre--except the critics and the
public. He does not venture to put his case any higher than that of a
trade combination, and it is clear that he at least does not consider
the theatre from the point of view of dramatic art. It is difficult to
accept this with equanimity. A phrase of his--"the theatre itself is a
business house, exhibiting the pictures of the dramatist and composer
under the proper light and most attractive auspices, just as the
picture-dealer has a picture-house in which he displays the best efforts
of the painters and illustrators"--is based on a curious fallacy.
The picture-dealer will not hurt his business if, in addition to
stocking the Royal Academy works, upon which he relies for his
bread-and-butter, in the front window, he devotes a little space at the
back to the unconventional efforts of the true artists. To do this costs
him nothing, and he may even make money by such a policy.
The manager of the strictly commercial theatre cannot follow the
picture-dealer's example; he must risk serious loss every time that he
produces a non-commercial piece. In one respect Mr Klaw is in agreement
with some of the English antagonists of the trust system; like them, he
is almost indignant at the idea that the theatre should attempt to
educate or dictate to the public. As a corollary, he and they must be
opposed to the idea that the dramatist or player should have an
educational value. Do they think that the public needs no education in
theatrical art? Are they content that the great half-washed should
remain in their present condition, which exhibits painfully a great lack
of education? Presumably.
Mr Klaw deals with the dramatic critic. Here, of course, our withers are
wrung and we write with a bias. He is indignant because the Syndicate is
accused of an attempt to "stifle and muzzle" dramatic criticism. He
thinks that it is "to his best interests to have it [dramatic criticism]
absolutely impartial, absolutely just, and always on the most dignified
plane." Then he explains that it is because certain American dramatic
critics have fallen from this high standard, or never reached it, that
they have been driven from the Syndicate's paradises. Who is to decide
whether the critic in a particular case is "absolutely impartial,
absolutely just, and on the most dignified plane"? Mr Klaw and his
colleagues, of course.
There is a certain fable in which a wolf set itself up to judge the
conduct of the relatives of an appetising lamb, and executed a vicarious
injustice. From time to time London dramatic critics of the highest
standard and most respected character have been excluded by particular
managers for a while from their houses, because the managers thought
they had not been "absolutely impartial, absolutely just, and on the
most dignified plane." Time and their friends have convinced the
managers that they had blundered, and peace was made.
Suppose, however, that those individual managers, who really are people
taking a far more dignified view of their calling than that of putting
it on the level of the dry-goods store, had been part of a syndicate of
Klaws, would those critics have been readmitted? Would the fact have
been recognized that the unfavourable notices were really honest
dignified criticisms, even if disputable upon the point of justice? Of
course not. If the newspapers had combined against the theatres, the
Syndicate managers would have climbed down. Would they have combined? I
think not. Here, indeed, is the peril.
It appears that the Syndicate has already laid its claws on some of the
London theatres. What combination is likely to be formed to fight it;
and if there be none, what is the inevitable result? In this land, many
centuries ago, even before the famous statute of James I. that regulates
our Patent Law, the British feeling has been hostile to monopolies.
Apparently this spirit was thrown overboard during the famous passage of
_The Mayflower_, or when Boston Bay was turned into a teapot, and
certainly the American takes everything on trust, except, indeed, the
honesty of his rulers and judges. Unfortunately one of the things we are
importing from America--would that there were a real prohibitive tariff
against it!--is the monopolistic spirit; and this being the case, it is
very rash to hope that we shall band ourselves adequately to resist the
attacks of the theatre syndicates.
It is easy to see how such a thing would be worked: at the beginning
quietly, pleasantly, until the hold became so strong that the gloves
could be taken off and players might be warned not to accept engagements
from outsiders on pain of getting none from the trust; and dramatists
informed that unless they kept all their wares for the Syndicate they
must look to the few outsiders for a living. The American managers, in
their big way, would buy up some of the irreconcilable newspapers, would
acquire a preponderating influence in the neutral, and discover that the
critics representing the independent journals were not "absolutely
impartial, absolutely just, and always on the most dignified plane."
Truly, if we are to be judged by such a method, few, if any, of us will
escape a whipping. Does the Syndicate regard any critic who expresses an
unfavourable opinion about its wares as "absolutely impartial," etc.?
Surely no one who is not "absolutely impartial," etc., is entitled to
apply such a standard to the critics: would this consideration prevent
Mr Klaw from judging them and carrying out his sentences? It is to be
feared that he would do Jedburgh justice on some of us, and the
out-of-work critics would join the crowd at Poverty Corner.