European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 22, 1968, Darmstadt, Hesse 6a angry own by William Glover a staff writer depending on the matter under discussion Arthur Muler these Days vexed optimistic in stems from general circumstance Given the situation in this country and in this world you can t help getting derives from a sense of intense creative impetus in Many ways thesis the Best of times for the artist to be enthusiasm his own i feel More Able to do what i have in mind than 1 Ever have before and i am More excited about doing it than i Ever was suiting deed to words Miller has just returned to Broadway with a play the Price about two Brothers suddenly facing up to the costs of failure and Success unlike previous works in two respects. In it the noted author of All my sons and the pulitzer prize win Ning death of a Salesman has written his first big comedy role. And in switch during the hectic tryout phase Miller took Over in a directing applause from the critical in Many ways this the Best of times for the artist to be alive. Majority and a Rush to the Morosco Box office were the Silvei lining after a clouded Start for the first illness forced changes to Woof the Playfour parts and then Miller took Over the directorial chores in the final week of rehearsals an experience everything considered Likely to intensify the Miller aversion to the tensions of commercial theatrical Enterprise. Q now that Yufu Are 52, and 21years after your first big Success do to find writing easier or More difficult a Well it gets easier the years go by. And it gets harder. I be destroyed More plays than most people write. 1destroy them for a reason that i think realistic.1 just Don t feel i be finished them. If i can t defend something myself then How can i blame anybody else for not defending it if i finally come out with something Good bad or indifferent at least i feel i be done the Best that 1 can and that it exists. Q Why in the Price have you extreme comical contrasts for an essentially serious drama a there an important link that it unified but not conventionally uni fied. After All 1 have been in the midst of Many tragedies in my life and in the Middle of the whole thing somebodyhysterically laughing about something and the mixture of the two i rather love. Q do you feel that the theater her and in Europe in a period of decline or rebirth a 1 feel that at the moment we could be at a turning Point. I think we have about exhausted the Novelty of the theater which has no engagement be tween the audience and Whathappen ing on stage All the absurd stuff the Lack comedy. It reminds me of the 1930s when there was a thing called the social drama where you walked in and you knew More or less what was going to happen before it Many of the plays now Are about a Man who inevitably going to slip on a banana Peel and the Only tension the question of the style with which he cracks his Skull on the pavement. I think the drama has got a much wider function than All that or it should have and 1 think it will have. Q some european playwrights arc writing about topical problems but Lead ing authors in this country Haven ? a in this country we have a difficulty. Italways been assumed that if there any contemporary relevance Ina play that that somehow reduces its aesthetic value. So the writers Are afraid to do it. In Europe they be got a tradition just the opposite from conflict for writers Here that you can t do both at the same time absolutely ridiculous. 1 once read a study of Shakespeare from that Point of View and it quite obvious that the allusions made in his plays hundreds of them were to contemporary events and very controversial the whole dichotomy conflict of the parts does t exist for me and i never did. On the other hand just be cause a play about Vietnam or civil rights does t make it any More important than a play that in t about any thing contemporary. What gives a play importance the depth of feeling wit which it Lias been done and the skill with which it has been Best drama deals with questions that Are rather immovable the Peren Nial dilemmas that the human race comes up against from time to they have new faces in each generation. Q in the i risible you wrote play that Many people Felt concerned the late sen. Joseph Mccarthyinvestigations. A Well 1 was under no illusion that Mccarthy was going to live forever or that he had never lived before. There i always something like that. There a tendency in lie human race to destroy its enemies for paranoiac re in for reason of terror and tear and 1 reached Back into the Salem Era simply because it had happened be fore. But 1 was not reaching simply to prove the. Evil of Mccarthy but to indicate this goes on and on forever. Of sure Itgoing to come again. Ithap pening right now i Many ways. There the worst thing for an artist to live in a country where nothing seems to happen.79 Al Day March 22, 1968 the stars and stripes a terrific fear in the country not the same thing but it born of the Sam kind of terrors and fears. Q there any greater tolerance evident a there sure. Itless of a close shop at the moment. But look at the race riots. The first thing that came up was that this was a plot a conspiracy. Just a few Days ago the presidential commission to investigate the race riots reached the conclusion that there was no conspiracy. But the pub Licfirst reaction was of paranoia the Devilhere moving among again and he subtly undermining the coun try. Q should artists take part i such matters a if people will pay attention totem Why not after All we hear the voices of pretty ignorant people practically All Day Long on the air and in the newspapers and artists Are not an dumber than they Are. Since artists Are in the Public Eye a certain number of people will pay attention to what they say. Provided they do have something today 1 think they Are obliged citizens to say it. Q does the artist have Freedom today what he wants in this country a relatively speaking sure. Therein t absolute Freedom by a Long shot. But if you compare u to the past Inthis country or you compare it to the situation in other countries at the moment the difficulty we have Here not the Freedom for the artist but the difficulty of being Able to come to grips with contemporary the situation in this country and in this world you can t help budget angry i can t accept it because Itso irrational stupid and has to be another Way to live. Q what Aliot artistic Freedom inthe russian orbit a it exists but it s could be an outbreak in the Viet Union of a terrific creative Force if they would Lake the wraps off. I was there a year think they r t cheating themselves and they Are destroying the possibilities of the country m terms of Art to a de Gree thatfrightening. Q this a difficult Era for the artist to live in a in Many ways Itthe Best time. For one thing Henot surrounded by dead forms Winch he Lias to work inside of. And 1 think More people Are interested in what the artist has got to say than Ever before. Maybe a Little too interested in the sense that a lot of plays and books Are judged on con temporary relevance exclusively. Ita Good time in the sense that i Only we could find the vocabulary for it the conflicts Are thing to be said about the United states that when something happens Here it happens big. Therea heroic Quality. terribly worst tiling for an artist to live in a country where nothing seems to happen. You go to some other coun tries and the artists envy us. Of the know All of the things that Are wrong with the i .s., but the Arims envy the feeling that one lung in the midst 01 a vortex 01 Power where what Hap pens Here affects the whole world. Ker thing that happens in tins to ii to matters the Ripples go out and shake the the 1 Rise Sehe Daivd \ Al to be a Hown abroad Itgoing to Start opening in Laio March in 31 Heaters in Lufroi e. 1 uuubl1 will see any of them. 1 Ould rather not travel at the moment. 1 want rather to gel Back to work. 1 often feel 1 have not started to say Hai 1 want to. L a just been prep aim to say u. U
