95. “Der Herr Sekretär”

Funny play by Maurice Hennequin
Performance at the Residenz-Theater, Berlin

Maurice Hennequin's farce "Der Herr Sekretär" (Inviolable), which is now being performed at the Residenz-Theater, could have become something if the author had used his few dozen ideas to write a satire on theater making that lives solely from the most improbable mix-ups. For he has developed the nonsense of confusion to the most fantastic method. There is hardly a character in this play who is not mistaken for someone else. And there is nothing that does not have this folly as its cause. But the author has not written a satire, only one of the above-mentioned jokes. The events seem like a mockery of all reason, but the author is not mocking, he is serious about the stupidity. The main role, the secretary, is played by Richard Alexander. I can't find anything wrong with this actor, who is a first-rate attraction in Berlin. His every word, every movement, everything is coquettish stagecraft. And because he practises this art with grotesque perfection, its flaws are revealed in an almost repulsive form. Nowhere is there any question as to what arises naturally from the plot or situation, but only how something has to be said or done so that the audience can't stop laughing. I like Eugen Pansa, who plays a narrow-minded and vain member of parliament, better. He achieves something similar to Alexander, but with moderation and in the way the play demands.