HIGHBROWS AND THEATER
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tellectual critics, far from having any sense of the theater, haven't
even a sense of the theater's problems.)
Which brings up the fact that, except where plays have taken
on an extra-theatrical interest, the contemporary theater has been
all
but ignored in general American highbrow criticism. Those who
have
written such criticism-an Eric Bentley, a Mary McCarthy, a
Francis Fergusson-have done so out of a particular, long-manifested
interest in the theater itself; and even of them, what with Miss Mc–
Carthy having other, often more urgent interests and with Mr. Fer–
gusson strongly concerned with the high drama of the past, only
Mr. Bentley has written steadily out of wide contemporary knowl–
edge: so much so as to become fully identified with drama criticism
itself.
As
it happens, the participating interest that he has aroused
has come rather from the academic than the literary world. And it
is indeed young professors-with no defined creative or literary
in–
terests-who have begun to write theater criticism
in
their tum. This
is logical enough, if only because it is in the colleges-with their dra–
ma courses on the one hand and their student productions on the
other-that the theater retains a classic appeal. Again, the theater,
from being neglected by literary critics, offers young academics a
particular opportunity. And the criticism they are writing has its
value, though more as an offset to journalistic play-coverage than as
a creator of highly cultivated audiences.
Just how such audiences can be created-other than by some
improbably magnificent efflorescence of dramatic talent-is an
im–
portant but rather frustrating problem. Having set down miscellane–
ous notes on the subject in hand, I can only end up with some
mis–
cellaneous queries. Perhaps the most crucial one is to what extent
there must be a change in the highbrow attitude, and what (assum–
ing no magnificent efflorescence) could bring it about. How much
would an
affirmative
interest in the current theater, on the part of
a few influential literary and cultural critics, help? How much would
the emergence of a few genuinely creative playwrights? (Off-Broad–
way, thus far, whatever its value for already existing modem work,
has offered little new work of any distinction.) Could a first-rate re–
pertory theater change the climate? Could a single playwright of
genius tum the tide? Would several literary critics help less than
someone with a fine sensibility for the theater itself, for its own
