The Little Review, March 1915 (Vol. 2, No. 1)Various
General
The Little Review, March 1915 (Vol. 2, No. 1)
Various
Literature, Modern -- 20th century -- Periodicals
What has been revealed to our modern Faust in those queer “absences from
the Body,”—what has been revealed to him in those hours, when his nerves
find us so hard to bear—what “the Mothers” have really whispered to
him—who were bold enough even to guess? But this much a poor Satyr of
the Outer Court may without impertinence divine. For Maurice Browne the
whole world resolves itself into an act of worship. The thing worshiped
we know nothing of, save in the eternal rhythm of life; and the “other
worshippers” we know nothing of, save in the music which responds to
that rhythm; but the whole drama—down the long desperate
centuries—resolves itself into nothing less than an attempt to attune to
reciprocity those two cadences—the voice of the Unknown World-Priest,
intoning through the ages, and the voice of the innumerable generations
answering! Have I been able in the remotest degree to indicate why to
the good sneering philistines who mock at all this and ask “what is a
Little Theatre but—a Little Theatre”? there may come some day a somewhat
ghastly awakening, a somewhat damning remorse? In that hour—in that
“Judgment”—happy will those citizens of Chicago be who have prepared the
way, and not laid themselves down in the way, of the builders of the
Abbey of Thelema!
What The Little Theatre is doing is nothing less than a restoration to
the worship of the Eternal Gods of an Institution which has been
bastardized, perverted and profaned! Think what the Drama in our days
has become! Think what “buyers and sellers” have set up their “tables”
in the Lord’s House! The Theatre, in our generation, is no more that
sacred stage where Life is purged and winnowed and heightened; and
where, out of the Tragedy and Comedy of it, clear triumphant music is
made audible. Poetic Drama is extinct. And yet can Life be said to be
even approximately mimicked by anything less than poetry? _Emotions_ we
have enough of and to spare—emotions and sensations! But these are not
poetry. These are but the heavy, raw, crude, chemical protoplasm of
poetry. Thus the only plays of our time which are beautiful and
successful and true to the life-instinct are _Farces_. Farces need not
be poetical. They represent the kicking up of satyr-heels round the
outer circle of the Dionysian grove. They represent the insurgent
rebellion of the humorous mob against all law or rule. And as such they
are admirable. As such they have their place. Indeed they are all that
is left of admirable in our modern Theatre. They are our only
contribution to this world-old act of worship—the contribution of
beautifully kicking up our heels! Putting aside Wagner and Strauss and
half-a-dozen Latin Opera-Makers, what has our stage got which really
answers to the religious exigency of which I am speaking? Nothing but
Farce, nothing but Satyr-heels! Devoted revivals of Gilbert and Sullivan
restore to us our youth once in a long season and _Fanny’s First Play_
and _Pygmalion_ hit our tired heathen fancy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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