II, Theaterstücke 4, (Anatol, 8), Anatol, Seite 256

box 8/7
4.9. A.
Zyklu-

TELEPHONE-CITY 4963.

For
Durants Press Cuttings.
St. ANDRES HOUSE
32 TO 34, HOLBORN VADUCI,
AND
ANDREN STREET, HOLBORN CIRCUS,
E.
Morning Post.
(Edward E. Pencook, Publisher.)
Cutting to issue date.......
THE PALACE.
Last night Mr. Granville Barker, succumbing to the
prevailing fashion, appeared in Ask no Questions and
you'll Hear no Stories," his own paraphrase," one of a
sequence," of seven dialogues by Herr Arthur
Schnitzler, a playwright whose work, thanks to the After¬
noon Theatre, is not quite unknown to London. Mr.
Barkers version of the whole seven, of which others will
be given in successive weeks, has been printed under the
collective title of "Anatol," and is to be had at the
theatre. In a prefatory note commendably brief he
says it seemed to him that in a faithful translation the
peculiar charms of the dialogues would disappear, and
if this means, as one concludes, that he has tried to render
them so as to give an English audience the same impres¬
sion as in German they make upon a German audience
the advantage of the method is apparent. It has greater
possibilities, in any case, than the greater evil of mere
translation, the only danger being that Schnitzler seen
through Barker's spectacles (and the more accomplished
the paraphrase the truer this is) is likely to seems
little bit like Barker. Well," Ask no questions and
you'll hear no stories does seem a little like Barker,
though whether this is due to the cause that one hac di¬
cated or to a similarity in the outlook of the two writers
one is not, unfortunately, able to decide. No one, in any
case, will think less of the dialogue on that account, and
many of course will think a great deal more of it. The
theme is slight. A young man, with hypnotic powers, is
anxious to know if his sweetheart really loves him. Why
not hypnotise her, suggests a friend. The lady
comes, and the suggestion (she innocently repeats it
herself) is acted on. The young man gets his answer¬
that she does love him but when it comes to
asking if she has been true to him he cannot, for fear of
the answer, put the question. Not even when the friend
has left the room and he is alone with her can be find
courage to put it, and, when she is about to answer it her¬
self, rather than hear the answer he brings herto." He
will rest content with the knowledge that she loves him.
The thing is lightly and pleasantly touched, but it los
rather than gains, one suspects, in the theatre, and some
of the downright comment of the friend carried much
more surely than did the introspective agonies of the
hero. By Mr. Barker himself, however, Mr. Nigel Play¬
fair, and Miss Gertrude Robins it was given neatly, and
in a charming Viennese setting by Mr. Norman Wilkinson
the little performance secured a most cordial reception.
The rest of the programme, though less novel in
character, is none the less pleasing. Delicious Miss Vesta
Tilley is still going strong (really one might be a silly
schoolgirl, so easily does se have one other feet), and
Mossis. George Grossmith, jun., and Edmund Payne,
though in their last week, are as diverting as ever. Then,
too, there is Mr. Albert Welan (quite one of our best and
most original entertainers), Selbo, an uncommonly pic¬
turesque juggler, and, to name no more, the delightful
Palace Girls in their “Black and White fantasy. The
house, of course, was crowded, and one may mention that
on Friday next Miss Maud Allan will give a speciale
matinée.
EPHONE-CITY 4963
Daer

For
Durants Press Cuttings,
St. ANDRES HOUSE,
32 TO 34, HOLBORN VIDUCI,
8, ST ANDREN STREET, HOLBORE CIRCUS,
E.C.
The Times,
PRINTERA HOUSE SOURE, E.C.
(Printer und Publicher, Mr. John Parkinson Bland.)
Cutting from issue dated..................49
PALACE THEATRE.
The seven sketches by Arthur Schnitzler, of which
Mr. Granville Barker, Mr. Nigel Playfair, and Miss
Gertrude Robins are playing the first this weck,
concern the amorous adventures of one Anatol, a gay
bacher in the Vienna which we are so often assured
is gay. Gaiety on the stage has a way of being sad;
it seems always to be gaiety as seen the morning
after. And so it is with most of these sketches by
Schnitzler including the first, Ask no Questions
and You'll hear no Stories. We see Anatol at home
He is rich and exquisite as we learn from his neckte¬
which is large and stockish, his furniture, which he
buys of the Secession, and his pictures, which include
works by Post-impressionists. (Mr. Norman Wilkin-
son, of Four Oaks, shows a sense of humour besides a
sense of beauty in his designs for the scene.) But
Anatol is not happy. He is tormented by jalousy.
Is Hilda, his present mistress, true to him?
Impossible ! No woman is true. But he knows
nothing for certain. Well, says his matter-of-fact
friend Max, why not ask her? You can hypnotize
people; hypnotize Hilda and you will hear the truth
(and Max, as a purely side issue, will very likely hear
a good story to goat over). The opportune arrival of
Hilda, and her still more opportune desire to be
hypnotized, push the suffling Anatol into action.
The girl (radiant in a Reville and Rossite gown) is
put to sleep, and Anatol begins. The first thing he
learns is that she is six years older than he thought
her; and this cold douche of truth increases his
dread of plunging into it. Suppose suppose suppose.
He goes on suffing, advancing to the attack under the
encouragement of Max, then shrinking back under
cover of excuse. He drives Max out of the room.
One more effort, and one final failure to ask the horrid
question, then he wakes her up. Better to be vaguely
jalous than to know the worst; better ignorance
and kisses than knowledge and none. And, after
all, as Max reminds him, women can lie when they
are asleep as easily as when they are awake.
We are not much cheered by the gaiety of Anatol.
But the sketch (though only intended to tell us some¬
thing about Anatol, and not nearly so broadly funny
as some of those that are to succeed it in subsequent
weeks is extremely deft, and it was more effective
in a variety theatre than we could have imagined
possible. This was chiefly owing to the acting of
Mr. Granville Barker and Mr. Niggel Playfair. Mr.
Barker hardly suggested the gay bacher, but he
made all the points and managed all the details to
perfection, and Mr. Playfair stolidly made an excellent
foil. Mr. Barker's paraphrase) of the German
sounded like original English.
Other good things in the programme are the Palace
Girls in their black and white scene a slight sketch
by Claude; Mr. Albert Whelan, and the bioscope
pictures of yesterday's ceremony.