The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-03-29
COUNTESS CATHLEEN'
POETIC PERFORMANCE ny
MARGARET UYCHERLY.

story of the Woman VINO Sells Her Soul
10 save Her People shows Yeats Poet
BETTER Than Yeats PiaywTight-Miss
Wycherly Admirable In the Play.
Like all Mr.. Yeats's essays in the art Of
tho theatre, The Countess Cathleen,
Yesterday afternoon at the Madison Square
leaves one with far better opinion Of Mr.
Yeats's poetic gift than Of his theory and
practice as q playwright.
The story 10 In itself at once deeply
spiritual and deeply dramatic. The whole
country Is suffering from famine. The
devil appears TO the starving peasants In
the guise Of two merchants in flowing red
gowns, and Offers gold in barter for the
wretohes' souls. To stay the spiritual
devastation, the Countess Cdthieen sells
her lands and estates but the fends make
away with the money. No way il left to
save the people but for the Countess 10 sell
her own soul. This she does, and while
the poor people rejoice in being saved
she dies in the agony Of a lost spirit, In an
epilogue an angel appears over her pros
trate body and tells us that by her sacrifice
Cothleen has won salvation.
In the opposition Of the Countess 10 the
baleful merchants there is the germ Of
genuine dramatic struggle; and In the super
natural denouement there is a finely legiu-
mate theatrio effect. But like Maeterlinck,
whom he follows Mr.. Yeats has carried
his revolt from the craft OF the theatre
10 the point Of renouncing the very essen
tals OF dramatic art. SANITY simplicity
and inspired archaism are all very well In
their way, but the result yesterday was
dulness that verged at times on the absurd.
Those were very poor devils, indeed, who
did not know that In aiding CdthIeeH's
sacrifice they we're playing into the hands
Of their Enemy!
For two acts the characters and what
they do seem too unreal TO be poetic, and
too unpoetio to be real-all because OF a
lack OF technique in the development OF
character in action. There is an art in
story telling which even the nursery fairy
tale may not neglect. Does Mr.. Yeats re-
member Hauptmann's 'Hanneler2 II is
the essence Of simplicity and spirituality.
infinitely more poetic because handled
with sincere dramatic craft Al the end
Of Mr.. Yeatss third act the diabo ic
merchants evooation Of evil spiTits caused
ghostly SILVER; and the scene In which the
Countess signs away her soul, though very
unslilfully realized, brought a moment
Of imaginative conviction. Something at
last was done, and in that moment the
true power and insight Of the poet became
in a measure aIticulate,
Mr.. Pinero has a gibe. in his wife With
out a Smile" at an artist who ceased to be
an impressionist when he learned TO draw.
Mr.. Yeats salvation as a playwright de-
ponds upon bis learning dramatic draughts-
manship. For the present his audiences
are limited to those rare and ardent spirits
who do not know when they are bored
and 70 those ever rarer and more ardent
enthusiasts who are willing 10 suffer bore
dom in the cause Of that most precious
Of phenomena on the modern boards, the
touch Of spirituality and Imagination.
In her Cdfhleen Miss Wycherly revealed
again the rarest of powers, both personal
and spiritual. In face and form she Is tho
embodiment Of poetic womanhood, noble
gracious and serene. To the tips Of the
fingers Of a very lovely hand she is an
artist Of the beautiful And what a voice
what powers Of melodious and convincing
elocutionl
The performance will be repeated Friday
afternoon, and to those who can reconcile
themselves to a more than Lonten dulnoss
may be recommended as bringing a more
than Ienten blessing