The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-12-12
TWO INTERESTING MATINEES.
HAUPTMANN'S LONELY LIVES"
AND 4 PLEASING CONTRAST.
Dramatic school Seen Out Of Its Depth
IN Dealing With . Bitter Dramatic
Dose Like the First - Problem, Play
In the Ibsen Neln--A willard Revival.

were decidedly out Of their depth In the
performance Of such bitter dramatic dose
AZ Gerhart Hauptmann's Lonely Lives.
Yet their efforts deserve warm commenda-
ton; il is a piece full Of sour stern truths
that make the average dramatist quake in
his gaiters al the notion Of treating them
dramatically And the main motive Is as
old at the mountains. The husband who
finds an intellectual affinity in another than
his wife existed before Goethes Elective
Affnities," and reached his lOgical-with
absurd variations -conclusion in DAN
nunzio's sLa Gioconda"
Hauptmann' husband is called John
Iockerdt-there Ii something in this name
that suggests "A certain brand If Holland gin
and b" II n poor, weak, spinelcss fellow
who diSg l-., hlH tOO-plaln seIInIiallty III nigh
flown pla,it1de-. His affinity Is Russian
.adNanC.d' Young woman Who matrlCuIated
at the Zurich University and has the dog
nosa chilliuess Of the intellectual woman:
&c, Of the modern eiHancipated creature a.
seen by the dramatlst A. matter OF re-
cord she exists only W the comic papers and
in the Imagination Of henpecked males.
men who deserve TO be besoiiied about the
hearth domestic.
Ibis woman. The onlv one with III. brains.
becomes a fixture in the household 4 he
young writer and after she has smashed lie
Happiness of all therein she consents 10
lcavs-iOr the husband has become oppIcs-
sive and threstels To muddy tie clear,
purfng stream of llatonlc love. W, en- 81"
g es away lie, an unsophist caeG e. in."ss
soul. with at aaoescent beard. dIownr iIn-
self iucoutincutly IN the adjacent lake.
For him no dirScs will lie sung. and his
sptaph shouh read. after tie manner Of
he lac Frank Stockton, Tie Lady or the
Lake."
Wien Kaufman wrote Ensame
MensChen" he was very much unde The
Ib-en influence. Played on morbid after
noon in early i, cemher by ambit ious
ANA eurs il II pay that wastes more
emotional tissue than would Sal ali and
Eleonora's Hamlet and Ophehn There
we're a thousand imperfec;ions IN the
periormance-that was TO 10 expected
but the choicest was the slow tempo main
tained Throughout. II was llgubrous:
il was in'crHiuahle. As with tie Brahms
symphonic I lcre il some curious Ter non
scriDt1 re gardiug tie modern social dramas
Of Ihsen ard his flock Of disciples A lit'le
acoeleration in dialogue, in increased brisk
ness in action puts a new face on all these
so-called gloc nv dramas Of the North
That is the a-on why company un-
trained in conventional theatrical work
someu mes hits of the character Of this class
Of playwrtlng.
The hines that gave most pleasure YES
tcrday to the hugely feminine audience
n the Empire Theatre were those begin
ming Here j. a ham uttered without a
trace of egotism by an actor in trouser,
If cross h thin pattern; and something
about ba rs garment, nlumbled over n
very. su picious-lookiug bit Of linen in the
hands of the womanly wife Strong
modest men averted their gaze at this juno
ture-and wisely
Il is dfficu't TO say whether Hauptmann
sides with the angels of domestic ity or the
devils OF discord in this early drama--it
is the third, 80 Mr. Meltzer says That
very bulky and valuable volume, Spe.
Tanns -Goldenes Buch der Wellitter-
H''r" gives the -Promotl Gus" (ss.) and
'Vr Sonnenaufganr" 50 precedence
Z Lonely Lives" W ether or no it was
played here in German at Amherg's or the
ITALIA We cannot say; cert anly this was
the first Performance in the vernacular.
l. ia reiUi d Int in dialogue and it boasts
Of some charmingly natural situations.
situations free from theatrcalisms. The
end of tie first act-very we'll executed
on this Ccca-ion-is n signal example Of
an eScel,en,y effective curt ain with
out resort ~ az i1c'al methods
The young wife, harassed bv a doubt
as 10 her worthiness- one Of those sub
rnissive German hdusfrdus who set tngling
the blood Of an American woman because
OF this eN hibition Of wifelv dependence
sees the shadows Of possible alienation
from her beloved husband young,
lusty woman with brains invades the house.
A. the curtain falls the baby cries-it is the
lnfantie yodcl Of consolation. With that
the neglected wife feels able to fight at any
odds. She fails So does her husband
No docs la m hpr .bo
no harm; new version Of the home dis
turber. n sort Of intellectual adventures,
mdi9rt-eW m6m'. The husband her adj
mirer, too weak to run of with her. too
Weak to stick to hi, wife, straddles the situa-
zion, or attempts TO. and falls into the icy
waters Of the Nuqqelsse He spouts
speeches that might have come from b.
sens Brand and is a curious admixture
idealst
But surely no student of Darwin, Haeckel
and Cos the-he quotes the atter-and a
writer engaged upon "A work dealing with
physiological themes would be so
profoundly emotional, And just here we
stumble on the radical d, feet Of the charaC-
ter. Men Of scientific training have hearts,
have nerves, have souls; but not such a
heart, such soul, such nerves as John
Iockerdt exhibits. n" is not az strong a.
DAnnunzio's LacIo Schdld in" La Gioconda,"
who has AZ least the courage Of his pas
SionS. So l"t us leave this very Haupt-
mann young man AT the bottom Of the lake
BY the way, Hauptmann must have been
reading ibson'S "Rosmersholm, with its
disturbing Robsccd and its double suicide
Stella Archer. the suffering wife Of this
production, gained the sympathy Of her
audience early in the play. She il a slender
Young woman with an exquisitely mod, led
head and beautiful eyes She was a shade
too clf-CoL~oious and stared too much into
the auditorium; but as a whole indicated
the girllsh Woes and devotion Of the neg
Ic't"d VII" most acceptahly. small
character sketch by Jessie Crommotte de-
serves praise, ard 80 does Helen Trayers's
ln'pcrso. alton of n healthy matrou with a
Celtic accett. which sounded quit" x tic
IN the NiCir itv Of Rerln. Henry Con Kiln,
as igarct''--mokrg arts, ana friend
ot tie family, might have stepped out of
lN,cn. He lad both bile and COMPLEXION
There was also an lbs n soubrette In the per-
80" cf III" wet rursc,j d lrawny damp az d
c"vGted a creature AZ ever landed n so,Ial-
u brat. Ia" iuci., generally, were very
urch II earnest. later in th.i profession al
careers they viii appreciate our reticenco
!. iIt prIiit x tl.'lr lanes this morning
sheer and sunny contrast WAS the
matinee AT the Garden Theatre with Mr..