The Minneapolis journal., 1903-04-21
AT THE THEATERS
Metropoiitan-Ibsen's "Ghosts." !"

"SS NuOSLS.
The drama is the most catholic Of arts.
AS broad as life itself, it must have a
charter as large as the wind to blow
on whom it pleases.S That terrible pessi-
mist, Henrik Ibsen, for whom no other
light shines than the remorseless one of
truth, has chosen the drama as the art
form in which to give expression to what
ne conceives to be the eternal verities of
life. A master beyond compare of dra-
matte construction, rvivisectionist of the.
human soul, a fearless investigator who
gaZes into the stony eyes of fate unafraid,
he treads a path into which no other play
maker has dared to turn his feet. And he
follows it relentlessly to the bitter end,
turning aside for none Of the "supersti-;
tions' that enthrall most men,. and Civ.
ing heed to no consideration Of dramatic
effect or social conventionality.
Ghosts, is a study In heredity, a. dra-s $
matic. treatment. of that inexorable and
linexplicable law that the sins Of the faith
ers shall be visited upon the children
law not always operative but one whose
! penalties are so terrible because so unde-
served by.the innocent ones upon whom
they fall It is this great mystery of
life that appeals to Ibsen as phase of
that o'ermastering fate which holds mans
Kind IN Its grasp-as inscrutable as it is
inevitable. The concrete working out Of
the studyo in Ghosts is intended neither,
as a lesson nor a demonstration. It is
rather an Illustration. And what a terri
BILE one! Given the five characters whom
he Introduces at the outset, given their
life histories up to that point, and the
horrible denouement follows as unescap-
| ably as Q. E. D. of Euclid.
But If that black abyss to whose brink
Ibsen leads us were the only destination
possible to the son- of a sinful father, the
human race had long ere this sought
and found its own destruction. Pessimist
that he is, Ibsen by no means overlooks
the chief mystery Of the law Of heredity-
the fact that it is not of universal appli-
cation. The other child of the man mon
ster whose sins are so frightfully. if
vicariously expiated in this play. is
physically. at least, normal and healthy.
Her veins are full Of the ''joy of living
whatever may be said Of her stunted
moral nature. OF these two children, one
is taken and the other is left But, mark
| this, it is. the child Of a marriage of con-
venlence who, tho morally sound, suffers
the awful penalty and visits it terribly
| upon the mother whose heart did not 20
with her hand. And the child Of love.
| perfect physically but true daughter of
her father morally, is set free when the
secret. <of her birth is revealed, to go
forth upon her mission Of destruction to
men. Thus are the sins Of Captain Alv-
| Ing, with their power of causing death
physiologically, also, gifted with an ap-
>palling power of reproduction.
But after all, the chief question in
considering such a play as Ghosts and
| its presentation on the stage is, can it be
justified? 1t is art, but it's power lies in
the fascination Of horror. 1t is truth, but
| shall such truth be spoken in such a way
| and in such a place? The defenders of
Ibsen. seek sato justify him as the soul
surgeon who cuts deep that he may eradi-
| cate the malignant seat Of evil. That is
the nn1V ii1Stif finr1 o,,1 - 81,
doubtful one at best. Ibsen himself.
worshiping at the fame Of truth, would
scorn it and point merely to the goddess
herself as answer to his accusers. It is
art, therefore it is good; it is truth, there
|, fore let it be spoken. Yet doubt #
many persons in that audience which
| funereally filed out Of the Metropolitan last
night, sickened and stunned, could pos
sibly feel that the exhibition of doddering
idiocy on which the curtain went down
was justified by the frightful warning. ii.
conveyed.
The quintet Of players who participated
/ in the presentation gave tragic value and
meaning to every phase of the play. His
tr1Ontsm could do no more than they ac-
complished In those brief hours passed
in the narrow confines of that gloomy
house. For Ibsen has reverted in this
play to the old unfties of time, place and
action. Each Characterization fitted into
the marvelously perfect framework of the
play so nicely that the dramatic illusion
was irresistible. Viewed merely as an
achievement in acting, with few of the
aids which playfolk habitua1ly use TO pro-
/ duce effects, this production of Ghosts
| is wonderful 81. s
/ Mary Shaw, in the character of the
woman in bondage to law and duty, is
tso convincing that it is impossible to
Iseparate her in thought from Mrs. Alving
From her first appearance in the inter-
view with: Pastor Manders, wherein her
quiet, tense manner reveals the woman
twho has suffered and still has an immense
capacity for suffering, until that final
scene wherein mother love is called on for
the supreme sacrifice, her fmpersonation
/ is pitched in very crescendo OF woe.
Could anything more heart-rending be
Econceived that that awful mother. cry to
Ethe soul which has faded out of the face
[of her boy, leaving behind but a human
wreck, unknowing and 1lnseeing |? There
/ is never any straining for effect in Mrs.
Shawss work. nor, indeed, in that OF any