The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-22
POST. LENFEN THEATRICALS.
FLOWERS OF AMERICAN DRAMA
THAT BLOOM IN The SPRING,
Ira h9-"The Strength or h Weak" q
aTglRsis ard Its NegRtlon--A Crane Play
Francis Wilson'S serious Il ole-"Arms
ann Inc MRn,,-ShAW and the Coat,

ana the Man'-Shaw aud the Coat.
Can anybody tell why the Amer can
drama Is a flower that blooms In the spring.
As often as the buds begin to shoot in Madi-
son Square, and the grass begins to green
in Bryant Park, and the sporting shops put
trout tackle into their show windows
} all reminding one that the world Is also
q stage-the native playwright blossoms
forth In the theatres Of Broadway. en-
I deavoring to make us still believe that the
stage is the world. The pessimist replies
that 1t is because the hard hearted manager
regards the native playwright as what the
vaudeville houses call u ohaser-that lugu-
brots subterfuge by which they empty
tfaeir seats to conceal the fact that not
even n continuous performance can go
on forever. But being in an Easter mood.
/ prefer to believe that 1t is because the
manager lie an optimist, and finds the season
OF Febirth most fitting for the drama OF
tho future. The spring poet carols his
cong OF hope in spite Of grip, bronchitis
and a liver turned awry. Why should not
the spring critic be equally brave and
cheerful
In 1.-THE Strength Of the Weak Mesdamee
Alice M. Smith and Charlotte Thompson
show an instinct for a vital theme and a
courage in attacking 1t OF which few OF
their brother playwrights are capable;
and in addition to this they display no in
considerable vivacity of observation and
wit. They nave built their play about
the thesis that a woman who has sinned
has the came right to social rehabilitation
las a man, and have spiced it with shrewd
strokes Of satire upon current manners
and morals. They even take note OF the
fact that it is the sweet woman playwright
ivho most delights to dabble in the mire
;of passion and sin, and they a their
,heFp ohject.to the fact with the old parrot
icPy aSainst art that leaves O bad taste
lin the mouth" If they were as we'll
:eauipped with constructive logic as they are
with audacity and sprightliness, the result
would have been momentous, and as the
lplay stands It commands the most serious
iaRalyts. '
It's defect, as l see it, is that it has the
;anaazihg effect of first proving and then
idisproving its thesis. For myself, though
by no means an anarchist in morals, l
VASTLY prefer the proof to the disproof.
,Pduline's sin, to use the authors able phrase,
has been. the result of the innocence OF
Ignorance. In extreme youth she fell a
victim to a much older man whom she
respected and believed to be her friend.
iMatured in mind and in spirit by the ex-
iperience, she resolves to assert the same
right a mar would have to live down her
youthful error, and is already a successful
novelist when she falls in love with and is
loved by a manly and generous young
man. The question is whether her self
rehabilitation will stand the test OF love as
1T has Of life.'f
Now. il the authors had been bent on
frisfdly proving their thesis Of equal rights
they would have made Pauline marry her
Ip5st to Richards sight unseen-as the boys
say Of jackknives when they swop them
lust as a man might do in a similar case.
THE strongest intellectual and dramatic
possibilities lay along this curse, but it
would nave been difficult, II not altogether
impossible, thus to develop the theme
without sacrificing sympathy for the girl
and perhaps also probability. For, the
;doctfinary morslist TO the contrary notwith-
lstandhg, a mans temptations are stronger
than a woman's, and his safeguards
tof instructive purity weaker. Pauline tells
the whole truth, simply and courageously,
and after a struggle between love and pride
Rahdri forgives her. The logical end Of
the problem is the triumph of repentance,
love and forgiveness.
What is particularly admirable in the play
thus far is the fact that it is distinctively
American. In no other country, as far as |
know, are men so little given to asserting
the right to the old Adam in them, or to
demanding tha their wives shall be without
the old Eve. The American husband is,
as he is sometimes called, an angel face
and a baby lamb; and sometimes no doubt
his lamblike angelity is the result Of moral
and spiritual conviction. Neither is our
social organization as phariSaicai as Maxim
0orky hAs--and not without reason-come
to believe it. 1t does not need a Col. dan
to name to us women whose scarlet pasts
make Pdul,ne's look like baby pink, and
who vet maintain to-day the commodity
KNOW as social position. With a little
more perspicuity. skill and knowledge Of
life 1t would have been as possible to demon
straits the strength of the weak-the strength
a loyalty and love-as clearly as Dumas
demonstrated his case Of iue-ld' against the
Gallo, beast-woman-much more clearly,
asit seems to me.
One reason for not doing this is that it
would AXE a master to give the result ant
play a strong dramatic appeal. And that
tis 5perbars the rdison d'ttre of the last
act OF Mesdames Smith and Thompson.
In the moment Of Pduline's triumph she
and, Richard learn that her seducer, who
hi lived with her under an alias, is Rich
;ord's father, and the revelation drives
!herf to. GesTair and suiciGe. Now, in the
mature of tie problem in fard there is TO
reason why the man should nave been the
boys -progenitor; and the chances in life
are about twenty million to n that he
would not be. The tragic ending, in short,
is achieved by the most violent coincidence.
The fourth act converts what should have
been a thesis play into a play Of the order
uf-sEs Dame arx Csmelliss." which Dlnas
himself asserted to be not a rroblem play
but a youthfully sentimentalized romance
or the co 'rtesan.
It must be added that The Strength
;ofsfhe Weak" evinoes NJ great dramatic
;rowers either as a thesis-play or as a
romance. Dramatically and e~motionally
1T is as fimsy as it is facile. The scenes,
y. 49, -. l.