The Washington times., 1894-04-17
AS THE CROWDS CONE OUT.

A society play in which every one is excess
lively clever and in which no one except the
three principal characters have anything else
to do is "A Woman of No Importance. As
Mr.. Wilde might say. maybe that's the way it
is in life, SO that his drama is not to be eriti-
cised for it. No drama of ones own has more
than one woman and one man in it, with pos
sibly child. The rest of the world are back
ground. As said Sunday, "a Woman of No
Importance" tells the story of woman and a
man who have sinned together in the past,
and who meet, with their son, after twenty
years.
Miss Coghlan takes the part OF the woman.
She has position in society, because society
does not know her story. We are told in the
dialogue by an American girl that when
woman and a man have sinned together they
should suffer equally, but are made to infer
that this is only the dream of a very young
and very innocent American girl. dream
that perhaps ought to be true, but. bless her
soul, never can. l do not see the other morals
if there are any. The woman in this case has
suffered all her life since her sin and the man
has suffered nothing. Although she has only
sinned once and he always. He is even to rob
her of the child that she has had for twenty
years, and she can only defeat him by telling
the young fellow of her guilt and his own
shame. Mr.. Wilde makes these equalities
terribly real.
The part of Miss Coghlan is really the only
one which requires any acting to speak Of,
ANYTHING more than the ability to say clever
things with the right infection, and after the
manner of people in the proper set. She has an
intensely dramatic. intensely emotional part,
and is stronger in 1t than in anything 1 ever
saw her in. Her son would strike his father
and she comes between them. He is your
father" she says. One sees all that this con-
fession means to her and watches her face
filled with conflicting emotions and her head
bowed before her sons eyes. 1t is wonderful
acting.
Mr.. Wilde makes his American girl say,
when some one sympathizes with Americas
lack of ruins and curiositIes, England fur
nishes US with curiosities from the aristoc-
racy. America is trying for things that can
never be ruined. He makes his own people
they are mostly women, for he is the first dra-
matist to realize that there are several clever
women to one man-say
"If you want to know what woman really
means don't listen to her, look at her."
Nothing surprises one nowadays, except
happy marriages
''Married men live SO like bachelors now-a-
days, and bachelors SO like married men,"
DUTY is what one expects in others, not
what we should do ones self.''
Mrs. Boucicault takes the part of the clever
est of the women, married woman whose
husband told her before they were married
that he had never been in love before. She
didn't find out that he was telling the truth
until six months after their marriage. "He is
so absolutely uninteresting you see," she
says.
Miss Jennie Yeamans passes through all
the tremendous complications of "Jane" with
breezy, jaunty sprightliness and humor-
GUS appreciation Of the situation that make
one tired with laughter She can look out of
the corner of her eye at one man and talk to
another in a wonderful manner. The plot Of
''Jane" is known. The almost painful nature
and qualify of its fun is also known. There
can never be anything quite so ludicrous
again as Shakelton's wife, who is not his. and
their two babies, who are not theirs. Miss
Yeamans is assisted by clever people. Jane"
is preceded on the programme at the Acad-
emy this week by sparkling one act play,
"Chums."