Wauwatosa News

FUTURE FOR IRISH CULTURE

Yeats, Eminent Playwright, Has Great Confidence in the Developments of the Future.

Thomas Beecham, who took the chair when an address on "The Irish Theater" was delivered by W. B. Yeats at Sunderland house, according to the London Times, said the Irish theater was the most remarkable dramatic theatrical phenomenon this country had seen for more than 200 years.

"One phenomenon in the theater of our day is the great revival of romantic drama in Europe. We see an effort to establish what was known as English opera, and if that is successful it will do probably more to reestablish the legitimate literary romantic drama than anything else," he declared.

Mr. Yeats said the question was often asked, "What is a bad play?" His reply was that it was a play which depended for its success upon some temporary interest. The majority of plays in London were of that character and would pass away because they appealed to a temporary interest. It had been said that Ireland did not read much; but in Ireland they would find a tradition of spoken culture and unwritten literature, and the Irish theater movement begun 15 years ago would not have been started had there not been confidence in that culture. Ireland was, of all countries, the least sentimental and one of the most passionate. He did not say that victory would come in their lifetime, or for two or three generations, but there would come a real national culture out of Ireland.