There are other inventions in
the play, not all quite so convincing. Sometimes Mr. Barker, in doing
the right or the clever thing, does it just not quite strongly enough to
carry it against opposition. The opposition is the firm and narrow mind
of the British playgoer. Such plays as Mr. Barker's are apt to annoy
without crushing. The artist, who is yet an imperfect artist, bewilders
the world with what is novel in his art; the great artist convinces the
world. Mr. Barker is young: he will come to think with more depth and
less tumult; he will come to work with less prodigality and more mastery
of means. But he has energy already, and a sense of what is absurd and
honest in the spectacle of this game, in which the pawns seem to move
themselves.
II. "THE LADY FROM THE SEA"
On seeing the Stage Society's performance of Ibsen's "Lady from the
Sea," I found myself wondering whether Ibsen is always so unerring in
his stagecraft as one is inclined to assume, and whether there are not
things in his plays which exist more satisfactorily, are easier to
believe in, in the book than on the stage. Does not the play, for
instance, lose a little in its acceptance of those narrow limits of the
footlights? That is the question which I was asking myself as I saw the
performance of the Stage Society.
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