The Theater

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 7, 1909

THE following question and answer appeared in a recent number of the Christian Endeavor World. The answer is given by Mrs. G. R. Alden, popularly known as “Pansy:” —

“Will you give several reasons why a Christian should not attend the theater?”

“In compliance with this request, let me quote a few sentences from several authors:—

“Whatever may have been the character of actors and actresses when they went on the stage, it is undeniable that in multitudes of cases the stage has worked its degeneration. How could it be otherwise? Palmer, the great theater manager, says: ‘The chief themes of the theater are now, as they ever have been, the passions of men, ambition leading to murder, jealousy leading to murder, lust leading to adultery and death, anger leading to madness.’ Could any man go through all this, entering with real feelings into these acts, without being affected by them?”

“So long as the stage is as unclean as it is, and acting involves, as it constantly does, the simulation of the basest passions and emotions, and this even in good plays, it is almost impossible for a man to support it at all without in a real sense lending his support to all.”

“When a resolve or a fine glow of feeling is allowed to evaporate without bearing practical fruit, it is worse than a chance lost; it works so as positively to hinder future resolutions and emotions taking the normal path.”

“Henry Irving committed at least fifteen thousand murders on the stage. Miss Ada Cavandish was betrayed, deserted, or abducted fifty-six hundred times. And true acting consists in entering into the spirit of the murderer, the betrayer, etc.”

“What can not be done without a tendency to moral harm can not be seen without a tendency to moral harm.”