There is little doubt that the substructure of the great
scene might have been very much simpler. I imagine that Sir Arthur
Pinero was betrayed into complexity and over-elaboration by his desire
to use, as a background for his action, a study of that "curious phase
of modern life," the manicurist's parlour. To those who find this study
interesting, the disproportion between preliminaries and result may be
less apparent. It certainly did not interfere with the success of the
play in its novelty; but it may very probably curtail its lease of life.
What should we know of _The School for Scandal_ to-day, if it consisted
of nothing but the Screen Scene and two laborious acts of preparation?
A too obvious preparation is very apt to defeat its end by begetting a
perversely quizzical frame of mind in the audience. The desired effect
is discounted, like a conjuring trick in which the mechanism is too
transparent. Let me recall a trivial but instructive instance of this
error. The occasion was the first performance of _Pillars of Society_ at
the Gaiety Theatre, London--the first Ibsen performance ever given in
England.
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