548 



The Review of Reviews. 



POPULAR DRAMAS. 



East and West. 



Writing in the first August number of La Revue, 

 W. Maurice Pottecher draws attention to the famous 

 People's Theatre at Mezieres, in Switzerland. 



A people's theatre in SWITZERLAND. 



Known as the Theatre du Jorat, this theatre is 

 described as a model institution for the purpose it has 

 in \-iew — performances by the people for the people. 

 The founder is M. Rene Morax. The latest performance 

 was a piece written by M. Morax, entitled " La Nuit 

 des Quatre-Temps," with music by M. Gustave Doret. 

 A legend of Valais was the source of inspiration of the 

 author. It is described as a very sombre drama, 

 impregnated with the religious terror of an austere 

 Catholicism, such as that of Brittany, and it is put on 

 the stage before a Protestant public. The idea of sin 

 and damnation dominates the story. Such a piece, in 

 which the action is a good deal restrained, could not 

 dispense with music, which is needed, not only to 

 accompany the couplets and the dances, but to create 

 the fantastic atmosphere of the legend. The inter- 

 pretation was confined to actors drawn from the 

 people, and seconded by two or three professionals. 

 Two of the popular actresses in the recent play, accord- 

 ing to the writer, were equal to professionals. The 

 mounting of the piece, the decorations, the costumes, 

 and the general organisation were worthy of all praise. 

 The home of the theatre is a little village of five to six 

 hundred inhabitants, not far from Lausanne. Last 

 \ear Gliick's " Orpheus " was given with great success. 

 There are tweh-e to fifteen performances during the 

 vear. and it is stated they attract good audiences. 

 The Swiss President, with the members of the Federal 

 and Cantonal Councils, Members of the Diplomatic 

 Corps at Berne, the French Ambassador, and M. 

 Paderewski, the pianist, have all been present at one 

 or other of the performances. At Geneva a committee 

 has been formed to arrange representations of the 

 works of M. Mathias Morhardt, another Swiss writer, 

 on similar lines to those which have become world- 

 famous at Mezieres. 



Drama for the People in Japan. 



The mid-August number of I.a Revue contains a 

 translation into French of some scenes of a Japanese 

 popular drama, entitled " .'\sago." The translator, 

 AI. A. de Banzemont, in a note says that in Japan, 

 more than in any other country of the East or the 

 West, the drama has always been a school of morals. 

 To encourage the good and reprove evil has ever been 

 its aim. Undoubtedly, however, the intrigue is often 

 \ulgar, the dialogue lacking in refinement, and the 

 personages commit acts of ferocity repugnant to our 

 feelings ; but at the close virtue triumphs and vice is 

 punished. Baron Suyematsu, in his book on the 

 Hterature of Japan, emphasises this distinctive 

 ( liaracter of Japanese drama, and assures us that it 

 has considerable influence on Japanese character. As 



in Greek tragedy, the chorus or recitative plays an 

 important part in the Japanese pieces, interrupting the 

 action constantly to guide the attention of the spec- 

 tator, and to explain to some extent the mental 

 attitude and intentions of some of the personages. 

 The dialogue, which alternates with the recitative, is 

 spoken almost always by one voice, and is rhjthmical 

 in character. 



HISTORICAL MONUMENTS- 

 WAXWORKS ! 



How many Londoners know the collection of wa.x- 

 works in Westminster Abbey ? There is an amusing 

 article on these royal effigies in the Lady's Realm, by 

 Mr. Navillus Baldorch, who has rediscovered these 

 antique oddities for himself, and is apparently dis- 

 tressed at the indifference of a generation which turns 

 its back on good Queen Bess and her patient com- 

 panions in dusty distress. Mr. Baldorch makes a 

 really entertaining guide : — 



Dust ! Dust I Dust ! Look up to where the vast ceiling 

 seems a huge grey bird winging its way straight to eternity. 

 More dust ! Half unconsciously you are drawing in impressions 

 as though they were wine — wine with centuries of dust on its 

 bottle. Faded blue, tarnished gold, yellow weary with its own 

 opulence, tired red, parchment-like faces in ivory wax, fringe, 

 tassels, cracked pearls, .and the diUl glint of paste jewellery too 

 faded to flash rainbow lints in answer to the sun. Over every- 

 thing there's a giant spider spinning. The spider of dust. 

 Does the Duke of Buckinghamshire lie at rest caped in ermine, 

 crowned with crimson and gilt? The spider knows. It spins 

 across his embroidery, dulling what once was vivid, modifying 

 what once was bold. It touches his closed eyes and builds 

 little streets and jialaces between the cracked fingers of yellowing 

 wax. It even mars his date, 1736. Q.ieen Elizabeth, standing 

 opposite him, defies the dust like the br.ave woman she was. 

 .She glares as though she scented an Armada in every grain. 

 The purple and red of her stifi hooped gown isn't quite so sure. 

 It ilroops and quivers away in faded patches and shadows. Iler 

 pearls, her crown are conquered, the dust has forced them into 

 a grey convent. They have renounced their lustre and gleam, 

 their red lights and their blue. They have taken the veil 

 — of dust. 



They manage these things better at Madame 

 Tussaud's. 



"THE SOUL'S NEW REFUGE." 



Of music Mr. Francis Grierson speaks in the OxIorJ 

 and Cambridge Review as the soul's new refuge : — " It 

 is the only art untrammelled by sects, opinioas, 

 parties, and geographical limits, with an adequate 

 expression for all the varying moods of humanity and 

 the most subtle intimations of a w'orld lying beyond 

 that of reason and will." He goes on to dare to say 

 that it was not what Rousseau taught that influenced 

 the w'orld.but the way he taught — not the matter, but 

 the manner. Others before him had said much the 

 sume things, but they were not endowed with the 

 harmonic mysteries of speech. 



