- Project Runeberg -  The Social Significance of the Modern Drama /
285

(1914) Author: Emma Goldman
Table of Contents / Innehåll | << Previous | Next >>
  Project Runeberg | Catalog | Recent Changes | Donate | Comments? |   

Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - The Russian Drama - Anton Tchekhof - The Seagull

scanned image

<< prev. page << föreg. sida <<     >> nästa sida >> next page >>


Below is the raw OCR text from the above scanned image. Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan. Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!

This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.


The Seagull 285
She herself known as Mme. Arcadina is a
famous actress of the old school. She knows how
to show off her charms to advantage, to parade her
beautiful gowns, to faint and die gracefully before
the footlights; but she does not know how to live
her part on the stage. Mme. Arcadina is the type
of artist who lacks all conception of the relation
between art and life. Barren of vision and empty
of heart, her only criterion is public approval and
material success. Needless to say, she cannot un
derstand her son. She considers him decadent,
a foolish rebel who wants to undermine the settled
canons of dramatic art. Constantine sums up his
mother s personality in the following manner :
Treplef. She is a psychological curiosity, is my mother.
A clever and gifted woman, who can cry over a novel,
will reel you off all Nekrassov s poems by heart, and is the
perfection of a sick nurse; but venture to praise Eleonora
Duse before her! Oho! ho! You must praise nobody
but her, write about her, shout about her, and go into
ecstasies over her wonderful performance in La Dame aux
Carnelias, or The Fumes of Life; but as she cannot have
these intoxicating pleasures down here in the country,
she s bored and gets spiteful. . . . She loves the stage;
she thinks that she is advancing the cause of humanity
and her sacred art; but I regard the stage of to-day as
mere routine and prejudice. When the curtain goes up
and the gifted beings, the high priests of the sacred art,
appear by electric light, in a room with three sides to it,
representing how people eat, drink, love, walk and wear

<< prev. page << föreg. sida <<     >> nästa sida >> next page >>


Project Runeberg, Mon Dec 11 19:45:00 2023 (aronsson) (download) << Previous Next >>
https://runeberg.org/sigdrama/0291.html

Valid HTML 4.0! All our files are DRM-free