Hauptmann's _Weavers_ certainly cannot be called a piece of dramatic
architecture, like _Rosmersholm_ or _Iris_; but that does not mean that
it is a mere rambling series of tableaux. It is not easy to define the
principle of unity in that brilliant comedy _The Madras House_; but we
nevertheless feel that a principle of unity exists; or, if we do not, so
much the worse for the play and its author.
There is, indeed, a large class of plays, often popular, and sometimes
meritorious, in relation to which the architectural metaphor entirely
breaks down. They are what may be called "running fire" plays. We have
all seen children setting a number of wooden blocks on end, at equal
intervals, and then tilting over the first so that it falls against the
second, which in turn falls against the third, and so on, till the whole
row, with a rapid clack-clack-clack, lies flat upon the table. This is
called a "running fire"; and this is the structural principle of a good
many plays. We feel that the playwright is, so to speak, inventing as he
goes along--that the action, like the child's fantastic serpentine of
blocks, might at any moment take a turn in any possible direction
without falsifying its antecedents or our expectations.
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