The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-11-08
OUR MODERN DRAMA.

The discussion aroused by the recent
local presenta ton of Haddon Chambers
play, "A Modern Magdalen," makes es-
pecially pertinent at this time an article
written by Hillary Bell, dramatic critic
of the New York Press and recently
published in that paper. Under the tt
tie Art is Not Dirt Mr.. Bell defends
the so-called problem play and compares
the characters and situations of the
plays of Sudermann, Pinero Belasco
and other modern dramatists whose
works have been loudly condemned
with those of the classic drama.
THE reviewers says Mr.. Bell. object
to the woman with a past in modern
plays and want us to bark back to
Shakespeare and Sheridan. Well. here is
Sheridan's best play, The School For
Scandal what of that? Does not JOS
eph Surface set forth IN an audacious
effort to seduce Lady Teazle? Nor
Pinero nor Belasco nor Sudermann has
written anything franker than the
screen scene. Again Hamlet is held up
to us. Does not Gertrude poison Ham
let's father in order to carry on a liason
with Hamlet's uncle? Is not Ophelia
the self-confessed mistress of the moody
| prince, self-confessed so candidly that
part of her confession has to be ex-
purgated in the performance? What of
The Merry Wives of Windsor?' What
of the Fat Knight in the buck basket?
What of that ardent lecher. Sir John
ard his bargain with Master Ford and
Mistress Page? In comparison with
Shakespeare's comedy, Pinroe's Iris is
pastoral What of Antony and Cleop-
atra? What of Measure For Measure?'
What of 'Troilus and Cressida?' How
about Wycherleys Country Wife the
only comedy of the restoration period
that can be produced2 Would Pinero
dare to write Peggy Thrift or Suder-
mann draw the gallant that pursued
herr"
Mr.. Bell goes or to quote Bronson
Howard, 1.-The dean of our drama and its
most moral writer who declares that
the theater is TO place Cor children. 1T
is the enjoyment" says she Press critic,
of matured people, and SO long as
these make life what it is the drama
nature Society is not what it is crack
ed up to be and the dramatist must
draw his studies from the nude
There seems to be much of logic and
justice in Hillary Bells defense of thu
playwrights who are so generously
abused by many writer's on theatrical
subjects. Most of these are not univer-
sal in their denunciation of the problem
play but condemn Pinero and Belasco
and others OF that school for producing
nothing else. They recognize the exist
ence of the woman with past and the
use of subjects as legitimate material
for the dramatist's art but declaring
that there is something else in life
worthy OF consideration by the serious
students of the modern stage ask that
these writers break away from the
problem drama and show what they can
do with characters of unouestionable
morality.
This however. hardly seems a fair
demand. There are many other writer's
on the subjects which these critics favor
as more widely typical of life and more
worthy of dramatic treatment: There is
Henry Arthur Jones. George Bernard
Shaw, Mrs. Craigie. ]. NJ. Barrie. Hall
Game, H. V. Esmond William Gillette,
Clyde Fitch, Martha Morton, Madeline
Lucette Ryley, and many others o.
more or less ability and repute who
write the sort Of drama that the Truly
GOOD insist upon and there are Maud
Adams, Julia Marlowe, Viola Allen. and
many more to offset Mrs. Patrio <
Campbell, Mrs. Leslie Carter and Miss