The evening world., 1894-05-02
''HANNELE."

'fNfN Nfh' '' t'~
duced at the Fifth Avenue Theatre last
night and gave unmistakable pleasure
to h large audience. At the close OF the
first part Of the representation there was
some applause. but 1t was scattered.
and II was plainly to be seen that the
audience was in IA maze OF wonderment
about the purport and purpose OF all
they had been looking at and listening
to. But when the second curtain de-
seconded and the performance was
over, the theatre fairly rang with
enthusiastic approval of the
evenings work. The applause was sus-
tained for five minutes, during which
time the whole house waitel and
brought out Gerhardt Hauptmann. the
Iuthor, twice, Hannele and the Hanne-
lean Christ "A half dozen times, and one
OF the smile-wrcathed Rosenfelds once.
only II few in the audience, who pre-
tended to be greatly grIeved by what
they vaguely described AS the irrcver-
ence Of the play. didn't like 1t. Nearly
everybody was delighted with 1t and
said so, in addition to Joining In the
noisy and hearty commentator at the
conclusion Of the play.
There Is nothing irreverent in Han
nele." II IL strange. weird AMI full OF
symbolism. 1t liz s~piritualistic to a grue-
some degree, but 1t Is neither religious
nor irreligious per Sc. Creed has no
part whatever in its motive. Belief In
n future state Is made n vehicle for the
phi .nomena with which Mr.. Hauptmann
nils the dream-phases Of his story. but
that Is all. The fears and hopes OF an
ill-treated young girl in extremis, fur
nish the dramatist his theme. and be-
cause Hannele Is Christian. Christian
ity gives its coloring to the striking
contrast between her condition and her
thought operations. Leaving Its hysteri-
cal possibilities out OF the question,
liar nele' can do no harm.
A hid is dying. She has been taught
that death Is the door to eternal punish
ment or eternal joy. Naturally she pre-
fers the latter. She lisps her anxiety
that the loving Jesus should stretch
out his arms and take her to heaven.
Her brutal. drunken, vagrant father
has beaten and abused her until
her body is full of bruises. He
turns her out In the cold. and, weak and
desperate, she seeks the river. Teacher
Gottwald rescues the child and carries
her to the almshouse, which Is her
home, to die. With terrible liberalism
the abject environment of this passing
young life Is made manifest. WretChed
beggars crowd around her rag-fecked
BED The besotted father is brought in
and is seen to be a worse type of tramp
than Walter Jones or Walter Gale ever
offered us. The place reeks with
wretchedness and poverty. An atoning
antithesis is presented in Teacher Colt
valid. refined, cultured and superior to
all aroun him. In the early portion of
her dream we are made acquainted with
the fact that poor little Hannele has
loved the Teacher, and there is a suspi-
cion that she has once. at least, In the
mute language OF n few violets given to
him. tried to tell her love.
BE hat as II may, she Is now on her
deathbed hoping and praying for heaven
and her loving Jesus" She has never
seen either of them. but she has no
doubt often painted mind-pictures of
them. And how has she painted them?
Surely, her heaven was a place directly
the opposite OF the almshouse and It's
accessories. No rags there: all shining
silks and brilliant tinsel. No filthy hard
bed, but a couch of down and gold and
crystal. Nc bare feet. but beautiful
white slippers. No quarreling thieves
and beggars, but angels in white with
great white wings. No damp and dark
ness, but wonderfully radiant light. And
what would her loving Jesus" look like?
why. glorihed Teacher Gottwald. of
course. The Teacher was her ideal here:
an apotheosis of him would suffice for
her ideal in the hereafter.
1t Is upon this mental process that Mr..
Hauptmann must nave based and built
his play, II he had any serious purpose
In writing It. Otherwise II is simply "A
fairy tale in which angels and saints
take the place OF elves and fays. From
the dignity Of the work, however, and
the correlation of the physical and
%phantasmal Incidents in It. there Is every
reason to believe that Mr.. Hauptmann
aimed to be metaphysical and not mys-
teal, and that his vision play illustrates
a theory of the genesis and evolution of
the human idea of Immortality. That
theory is forcibly set forth oil his stage.
There you have the real Hannele suffer
ing and in rags; here You have the
dream Hannele In a robe Of silk and
white slippers. lying in II crystal coffin,
While the almshouse inmates look on in
awed amazement. or whisper about the
richness of her apparel and the extraor-
binary change that has taken place In
her garments, sc. There you have Gott-
| wald, the man here you have him trans
figured, none other than Hannele's say
Jour, leading her by the hand through
vistas of angels to the presence OF the
throne.
There is nothing in this to shock any
r%eligionist. 1t is purely u psychological
explanation OF the supernatural as the
human mind shapes it aud nothing else,
II is Hannelc's heaven, not the orthodox
Christian heaven of which we are given
"A view II Is poor, dclirious Hanuelc's
Christ we see, not the Christ who died
on Calvary. Mr.. Hauptmann acccntuhtes
these points by making tn" closing scene
of his drama "a return to the almshOuse,
where the Doctor and Sister Martha are
seen bending over the child. whom the
former then pronounCes dead,
one charm of the evening was the
correctness and even strength Of the per