The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-02-28
n A ISIS BLANCHE BATES, an ac-
N tress of exceptional ability and

n "a ISS BLANCHE BATES, an ac-
IN tress of exceptional ability and
power, who has recently been
essaying the Ibsen drama, presenting
''Hedda Gabbler" in New York and
Philadelphia, has been taken to task
for indulging in the morbid. In de-
Tense of Ibsen and the pathological"
play, so-called, Miss Bates declares
that the stage needs a surgeon, and
that she does not know of better
surgeon than DR.. Ibsen.
Being reminded by an interviewer
that she was regarded as one of what
is termed the 'Ibsen trinity in Amer
lea, the others being Mary Shaw and
Mrs. Fisk, Miss Bates replied:
Il am not dramatic reformer and
do not believe that to be called an 1b-
sen crank is so very terrible. There
is a very evident movement on the part
of the public against the frivolity Of
the theater, and it is only from this
that judge some good will come. At
any rate, some important change is
impending and the serious vein of the
drama is beginning to assert itself
more and more"
Miss Bates then proceeds to discuss
Ibsen and his plays, notably, "a Dolls
House." "Hedda Gabbler'' and Ghosts
with a view to demonstrating that
they should not be relegated to the Ii
brary as clinical dissections of morbid
and diseased life, but are entitled to
representation upon the stage for the
benefit of those people who expect some
intellectual stimulant from the theater,
and who are not wholly satisfied with
''tinsel and light and melody
The actress calls attention to the
well-known American hostility to any
thing that is serious. She says, and
perhaps truthfully, that it is the Amer
lean tendency to make fun of things,
and that Americans are wont to re-
strain enthusiasm when something
great and forceful is offered on the
stage
Coming then to the discussion of the
Ibsen plays Miss Bates points out what
she considers their beauties of thought
and diction. She, of course, disagrees
with the critics who say that Ibsen pre-
sents caDkering and fostering sores.
Rather, she maintains, does he present
the 9stern unassailable problems of
life"
Referring to Ghosts which drama
was presented in this city by Mary
Shaw late last season, Miss Bates justi-
t1es it in these words:
Il cannot conceive of greater beauty
and hefOism than is presented by the
unfortunate Mrs. Alving in Ghosts 1t
reveals broad ideal of human rela-
tions-prought about through great
suffering, it is true, but destined to
have noble effect. To go no further,
there is not one of these plays that
does NOT SET the ambition THINKING apd
that does not impress a lesson clearly.
And is it yet too early for the stage to
occasionally give people a chance to
think? believe they have a right to
demand that of it, to some extent; to
ask, not only for mere amusement, but
for something serious"
Now this sounds very plausible in the
abstract, but in SO far as this play of
Ghosts" is concerned it is submitted
that its whole subject matter is most
revolving and one that is certainly I'M
fit for exploitation in a public play
house. The picture of an agonized
mother and her son, both of whom are
helpless sufferers from transgression
of hereditary laws is distressing
enough to the mere thought without the
physical representation of the catastro-
phe. There are some moral tragedies
that it were surely not art to depict
upon canvas nor to represent upon the
stage. And Ghosts" certainly is one
of them.
It's whole subject matter is unspeak-
ably vile. Its ''offense is rank and
'smells TO heaven"
1t should be kept between the covers
of a book-not paraded in flesh and
blood before the public. F. G. H.