Abstract

Fantasies

The article discusses various dramas that are staged in the U.S. It states that drama is returning to the technique of the chronicle and methods of the allegory. The younger playwrights of Europe are in flight from life. The drama titled "The World We Live in," strives to like a fable written by author Jonathan Swift. As the beasts mate and gather food and make war, so does man. Thus the only wise man is he who, like the Vagrant that witnesses and interprets the crass allegory, desires neither to love nor to possess nor, therefore, to contend. The play is almost devoid of dramatic life. It is a morality and a spectacle. The Vagrant moralizes and beasts go through their allegorical gestures. It would have been simply dull without this particular production, which unites the utmost splendor with the most disciplined skill and has more poetry, rhythm, and beauty by far than the play itself.