Well, it never
occurred to me that any of them would seriously have considered the
production of a piece so far off the ordinary lines. They had not,
like the enterprising Director of the Independent Theatre,
undertaken the dreadful trade of educating the public. As a matter
of fact, they fought shy of a piece in which "the new hysteria" was
studied, and which ended badly, or at least sadly.
_A Comedy of Sighs_, produced at the Avenue last spring, _was_
really an experiment on the taste of the British public. I wished to
ascertain whether a play depending for its interest rather upon
character and dialogue than upon plot and sensational situations,
would be at first tolerated and afterwards enjoyed by an average
audience. Perhaps the experiment was too audaciously conceived, and
too carelessly conducted, by both author and management. It was
unfortunately vitiated by the presence of a prevalent bacillus, the
British bugbear, in the test-tubes.
The new play was received with inarticulate cries of horror by the
critics. The _Telegraph_ and the _World_, which had presided in
auspicious opposition over the birth of THE BLACK CAT, now
hung terrific in unnatural conjunction in the horoscope of _A Comedy
of Sighs_.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25