Plays, Pleasant and Unpleasant, Vol. 2
Book Description
Readers of the discourse with which the preceding volume commences will remember that I turned my hand to playwriting when a great deal of talk about theN ew Drama, followed by the actual establishment of aN ew Theatre (the I ndependent), threatened to end in the humiliating discovery that theN ew Drama, in England at least, was a figment of the revolutionary imagination. This was not to be endure...
MoreReaders of the discourse with which the preceding volume commences will remember that I turned my hand to playwriting when a great deal of talk about theN ew Drama, followed by the actual establishment of aN ew Theatre (the I ndependent), threatened to end in the humiliating discovery that theN ew Drama, in England at least, was a figment of the revolutionary imagination. This was not to be endured. I had rashly taken up the case ;and rather than let it collapse, I manufactured the evidence. Man is a creature of habit. You cannot write three plays and then stop. Besides, theN ew movement did not stop. In 1894, Miss Florence Farr, who had already produced Ibsen sR osmenholm, undertook the management of the A venue Theatre for a season on the new lines. There were, as available New dramatists, myself, discovered by the Independent Theatre (at my own suggestion) ;M rJ ohn Todhunter, who had indeed been discovered before, but whose Black Cat had been one of the Independent ssuccesses ;and Mr W. B. Yeats, a genuine discovery. Mr Todhunter supplied AC omedy of Sighs: Mr Yeats, Tie Land of Heart sD esire. I, having nothing but unpleasant plays in my desk, hastily completed a first attempt at a pleasant one, and called it Arms and theM an. It passed for a success :that is, the first night was as complimentary as could be wished ;and it ran from the 21st of A pril to the 7th of July. To witness it the public paid 1.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)
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