15 SEPTEMBER 1923, Page 22

THE THEATRE.

The Machine-Wreckers. By Ernst Taller. (Berm. Os.) A play by one of the most prominent of the younger German dramatists, admirably rendered into English. The story is woven round an incident in our own history, the Luddite Riots which followed the introduction of steam-driven machinery. The play represents a break-away from the naturalist drama of which Hauptrnann is the most illustrious example, and by its combination of verse and prose, its bold- ness of effect and impassioned rhetoric, hints at the possible revival of poetry in the theatre.