The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-08

NEW YORK, Jan. Paul Potter's new
play, The Conquerors. produced at Chas.
Frohmans Empire Theater this week, is
being denounced as the most brazen drama
ever placed on the stage by an American.
Paul Potter is the man who successfully
adapted "Trilby.' His heroine in ''The
ConquerorS" is twice the victim of attempt
ed criminal assaults during the play, and
one OF the brutes she falls in love with aft
erwards. Mr.. Potter says his play was
written for women only and that they will
understand his play and accept it when men
will condemn it. A New York Herald man
called on Mr.. Potter at Murray Hill Hotel
and asked him these questions:
rs 1t possible that a man who, like Eric.
in your new play, attempts to assault a
woman, but at the last moment is deferred
by her pleading, can win the interest and
sympathies of an audience? And is it pos
sible, even though he subsequently becomes
the womans defender against another as
sailant, that an audience can understand
how that woman can fall in love with him
land all in the brief period OF time in
which the story of The Conquerors' trans
pires?"
That's my play" said Mr. Potter
You've gone right to the kernel of it,
Il claim that the play is natural from a
Womans point of view; and / wrote The
the first act, when Yvonne dashes a glass
OF champagne in Erics face for insulting
her, he has done ncthing-a spoiled young
chap, hot in his blood. Naturally this UNI
tanned young colt thinks of revenge, and
though his blood carries him to the point
OF revenging himself by a forcible assault
upon Yvonne, he softens and turns from his
purpose when she pleads with him on the
ground of her utter defenselessness.
Now. the whole point as to the success
o ( Eric
for having intended to assault Yvonne and
going SO far as to partly carry out his in
tefltfonS? / believe they will. Women will
forgive anything for love.
'Of course. ] think it would have been a
mistake to have made the scene of the at
tempted assault too long. / merely flash it
at the audience and the next moment Eric
is YvOnnes defender As to what follows
IN the next act men and women will have
different opinions. Men will say, Isn't it rot
that she didn't know whether she as
saulted or not?' Women, on thelother hand.
will ask each other the question, Would
you forgive him. And m sure every WOm-
an would. That assault scene isn't half as
diabolical to women as 1t is to men. In
fact you can't think what women will con-
slider too tough They look at matters with
different eyes than ours. / think Eric s
sudden change from the assailant to the
defender reconciles women to him. There
fore. Yvonne's love for him after she has
stabbed him-love whose first blossom is
pity--seems natural to women. For if there
is anything about women more wonderful
transitions of feeling.
See what have written on the title page
of my manuscript:
'Grimly spoke Atulla Khan,
Love hath made this thing a man..
-Rudyard Kipling.
''In The Conquerors | attempt to show
how love makes a thoroughbred out of an
untamed colt like Eric. He's the thing
love makes a man of. AS to probability,
that counts for nothing on the stage. Stage
craft consists in working out your story,
whatever 1t may be. consistently with it
self. If your play is technically correct, it's
all right.
LAS to The ConquePors' being success,
I've been around town since Z O'Clock this
morning, and | know the plays being talked
about The men who saw it may not have
liked it. but I'm told the women who were
with them swallowed it whole. It's wom-
ans play. my dear fellow.
It's a tart story, | know, but the whole
tendency of the stage is toward realism.
In The Conquerors' I've tried TO draw the
line between realism and brutality-between
the Theater Francois and the Theater Ltbre.
"Of course, you recognized that in the
opening scene the stage setting and group
ing Reproduced the wel-known picture,
The Spells of the Enemy. AS to my in
debtedness to De Maupassant's brief story,
Life. ] am quite willing to admit that in a
way De MaupaSsant Steered the way at the
end of the first act.
How did like the performance? I didn't
see it. I've never seen a line of my own
plays played in public"