New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-11-22
THE DRAMA.
MISS O'NEIL AT DALY'S THEATRE.
"Magda. :"


Miss Omen appeared in Days Theatre last night
and acted Mr.. Sudermann's Magda- The actress is
not unknown to this public The play. which has
been internationally stage for ten years. ia
known too well. Miss O'NeiIs STUDY OF Mr.. Suder-
mans i'll bred i'll conditioned. and obnoxious
heroine has not discovered any depth or meaning
in the character hitherto upexplored, nor does her
personation of this disreputable female invest her
with any beauties This public has seen Mag
da In the persons OF Nine. ModJeska, Mrs. F1ske
Nine. Sarah Bernhard. Nine Duse. and Mrs
Patrick Campbell, and therefore has had sufn-
cientiy liberal allowance Of The Advanced Woman
AS an actress Miss O'Neil has force: she would he
wise to find better medium for the display
OF 1t than the degenerate medico moral dissecting
table garbase-bucket, gas-tank drama of Mr.. Su
derman. Mr.. Ibsen or that secondhand Brummaeem
lDser, Mr. Bernard Shaw. Miss O'Neli possesses
some elemental qualifications: strong character
power of will, capacity of stimulation. and the i'm
Pulse TO let herself go, by which is meant GER
tain frenzy. AS artist. however, she has almost
everything to learn; and, being natured and con-
hrmed in a bad because rough and reckless meth
cd. she is very little likely TO learn anything. Her
short, minctng steps make her every movement
graceful; she does not hold effect when
she has made it; and. though her level speaking
is clear, her delivery, the moment she becomes
excited. is blurred. confused and almost inartlcu-
late. She seems not have learned how to make
up her face; at any rate, in this performance she
had literally facial expression Nor Is she a
good dresser On her first appearance she sug-
gested stick Of pink and white peppermint candy.
She completely lacks. is always running about the
stage, in a motionless manner. and muHh
addicted TO the waving of arms. This play of
''Magda provides no CHARGE 70 tear cat" (Which
probably Miss O'Nell is qualified do, bur, in
Magdas denuncation of DR.. Keller the actress
liberated copious torrent Of verbal fustian, and
here might have sustained a telling declamatory
point but for untimely introduction,-at
inartistio and unnatural-of hysterical tears. So,
in the last scene. after commanding Keller's
DIlS eba tyaES -~a habf Ind +obIa and ha--
self in a chair-by that obliterating ali ef-
feet In a word, this is case of raw material
Mr.. Mckee Rankin gave a respectable. though
tiresome. performance Of the stern father. and
died with many superfuous gasps and grunts.
The audience was considerable and friendly; and
the cIaque was on hand as usual
Particular comment this revival OF an old bore
scarcely seems needfuI, but consideration for the
public interest always warrants protest against
plays Of the "Magda" kind. They are repulsive, OBJ
noxious and mlschevous and they ought not to be
presented Judgment previously recorded IN this
place NAV well be repeated Mr.. Suderman's
"NIagda" is a particularly rank specimen Of sophis
teal morality and ponderous duness- Nothing in
the character of Magda awakens health1ul sym
pathy and nothing in her conduct inspires respect
She is the paltry incarnation Of perverse selfish
ness, and the only practical purpose that her pres
ence the stage is TO declare that some
people exist only to trouble equally for them
selves and ali around them. She is the woman
who is determined have "a career" and when
she has away from home ana turned actress,
and has become mother without becoming wi1e
her brazen boast that her spirit is enancipat-
ed. She IS vain. selfish Ill bred covetous OF al
rniraton inconsiderate OF others and bent on hav-
ing her way, at any cost and in spite or any
consequence, and, IN actual life. she would be an
exceedingly troublesome and offensive person. Mr..
Suderman, IN making this play, appears 10 have
been burdened with the tremendous conviction that
children should obey their parents. and that parents
should not be unreasonably eXacting in their de-
fbair
that ought nor seriously TO disturb the mental
equilibrium OF anybody.
Morality is inherent In everything, and II may
always he safely trusted to take care of itself
Art should neither enforce precept nor teach
a lesson. moral drift will determine its infu-
cree and its moral drift ought TO set toward good
and not toward evil. The trend, however. should
be spontaneous and not magsterlal If he salutes
me with q scrap of morality in his mouth, says Sir
Oliver Surface. 7 shall be sick directly" The
stage is less attractive than when it devates
into ethical controversy and undertakes to dffuse
salutary or otherwise regulative admoniuon as to
the public morals There has been vastly too much
Of that altogether superhuous theatrical socitude.
All the situations in Mr.. Suderman's drama are
strained The difficulty caused by the fugittve's
return her fathers house could ready
be removed by her precipitate departure from II;
and that in actual life would have happened. The
interview between the lady and her old lover and
those between that lover and her father OBJ
noxious good taste. and the commentator on
them. II he write freely. would be
PEELED examine details of conduct unfit for print
The climax is stupidity coarse. for the author has
made his heroine act and speak in manner to
outrage both lial duty and common decency, by in
tImating her father that she has been leading p
life Of vice and shame. That sort of thing is not
strength: on the contrary. il contemplate
ness: and is very mischievous. No wound
deadly can be dealt that which defaces the
ideal and stains the glory of a pure womanhood.
w. W.