The reception of "The Cherry
Orchard" was something like what the reception of Ibsen's plays used to be
twenty years ago. It was scarcely even a mixed reception. There could be
no mistake about the failure of the play to please the vast majority of
the members of the Society. At the end of the second act signs of
disapproval were very manifest indeed, and the exodus from the theatre
began. A competent authority informed me that at the end of the third act
half the audience had departed; but in the narrative fever of the moment
the competent authority may have slightly exaggerated. Certain it is that
multitudes preferred Aldwych and the restaurant concerts, or even their
own homes, to Tchehkoff's play. And as the evening was the Sabbath you may
judge the extreme degree of their detestation of the play.
* * * * *
A director of the Stage Society said to me on the Monday: "If our people
won't stand it, it has no chance, because we have the pick here." I didn't
contradict him, but I by no means agreed that he had the pick there. The
managing committee of the Society is a very enlightened body; but the mass
of the members is just as stupid as any other mass. Its virtue is that it
pays subscriptions, thus enabling the committee to make experiments and to
place before the forty or fifty persons in London who really can judge a
play the sort of play which is worthy of curiosity.
Pages:
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271