flattered, taking good care not to show their boredom, applauding where applause seemed called for—after their guests had spoken. But we need proceed no further with our inquiry. M. Larochelle junior, a director of one of the outlying theaters, once said to M. Bernheim: "Molière and Racine will never succeed in these neighborhoods unless they are played by the Comédie-Française—and even then, not too frequently. Take my word for it. Be careful not to give them too many classics. One performance a season, or at most one every three months, will be quite enough."[1] I ask you, do two productions a year constitute a People's Theater? And these performances being as I have described them, are they really for the people?
The production of Bérénice at this same Théâtre Trianon (the twenty-fifth Popular Gala, June 17, 1903) is still more characteristic. Almost all the seats—all the orchestra and boxes—were reserved several days in advance. The audience included even fewer of the people than the one I saw at Le Misanthrope. Many were in evening dress, but there was not a single workingman anywhere. That made no difference to the lecturer, M. Auguste Dorchain, who addressed the fashionable audience as if they had been rough laborers; and it made no difference to the audience, who thought it a great compliment to be so treated, and wildly applauded him.—Who is wrong?
Such being the case, it is evident that the pro-
- ↑ In Le Temps, Feb. 12, 1903.
