ABSTRACT
Plays for the cinematograph are undergoing much the same system of evolution as stage plays have done. The most primitive plays, of course, were merely tableaux, sans scenery and sans story. Then came action and drama, melodrama, in fact, of the most blood-curdling character, which could not be disguised even by the superlative genius of Shakespeare. Anon we were treated to comedy, subsequently to pantomime, and following that, burlesque. The introduction of music into the theatre marked the advent of another epoch, and then we find light domestic comedy, pathos, bathos, and realistic melodrama provided by Faulkner and Dion Boucicault. Another era witnessed the presentation of wonderful historical pageant plays, and finally we are confronted with the problem play, and by way of an antidote, what is known as the school of reserve force.
