To count the performance
of "Money" as an insult to living artists is to lose sight of a main
factor in the case. The State and living art must be mutually opposed, for
the reason that the State must, and quite rightly does, represent the
average of opinion. For an original artist to expect aid from the State is
silly; it is also wrong. In expressing a particular regard for the
feelings of musical comedy, and in announcing beforehand his intention of
being present at the first night of the new Gaiety masterpiece, the King
was properly fulfilling his duties as a monarch towards dramatic art. Art
is not the whole of life, and to adore musical comedy is not a crime. The
best thing original artists can do is to keep their perspective
undistorted.
A PLAY OF TCHEHKOFF'S
[_8 June '11_]
At last, thanks to the Stage Society, we have had a good representative
play of Anton Tchehkoff on the London stage. Needless to say, Tchehkoff
was done in the provinces long ago. "The Cherry Orchard," I have been
told, is Tchehkoff's dramatic masterpiece, and I can well believe it. But
it is a dangerous thing to present foreign masterpieces to a West End
audience, and the directors of the Stage Society discovered, or
rediscovered, this fact on Sunday night last.
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