At the Royal Theatre
in Munich it was accorded a most triumphant reception, and something
over sixty representations has not yet exhausted its popularity.
The effort to come to close quarters with reality is visible in every
phrase. The denial of the value of all the old romantic stage machinery,
with its artificial climaxes and explosive effects, is perceptible in
the quiet endings of the acts and the entirely unsensational exposition
of the dramatic action. There is one scene (and by no means an unnatural
one) in which there is a touch of violence, viz., where Tjaelde, while
he hopes to avert his bankruptcy, threatens to shoot Lawyer Berent and
himself; but there is a very human quiver in the threat and in the
passionate outbreak which precedes it. Nowhere is there a breath of that
superheated hot-house atmosphere which usually pervades the modern
drama.
"Bankruptcy" deals, as the title indicates, with the question of
financial honesty. Zola has in _Le Roman Sentimental_ made the
observation that "absolute honesty no more exists than perfect
healthfulness.
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