The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1906-10-30
A Magnificent Audience
Greets Dixon's New
Play in Raleigh.
NOT AS GOOD AS THE
CLANSMAN
Tho PLAY i. Not a, Nirilc and Tense
as the Rook-Thc Socialism Prob
lem Toned DoWn-(ompanN
Goes TO Wilson For Mon
day Night.

Ia"
The one Woman" the new play OF
Thomas Dixon gave TWO perform
ances in the Academy Of Music yes
terday. At the matinee performance
the late arrival Of the train and the
delay about getting the scenery IN
place made the curtain rise late, ana
the audience and actors did not start
in with the best Split. In fact the
delays made it impossible to have
much Of the scenery, made at great
cost, and the play had to be hutrled,
the curtain not going up until nearly
four O'Clock, while the audience had
grown weary waiting nearly an hour
expecting che curtain . go up every
minute Of tnat long time. The result
was that the afternoon performance
WIS disappointing, alike 10 the actors
and TO the audience.
At the night performance there was
Il brilliant audience. Every seat was
taken. There were people mere from
Il dozen near By own aad the au-
aiencc in the AFTERNOON wa III part
made up by visitors from points aIOnS
the Raleigh and Castor railroad. Inc
night audience was such as ought 10
inspire any to It's best, ana
the rendition at that performance met
with commentator from it's audience.
The glowing notices from the Char
lOtte Observer, Charlotte News and
AsheVille Citizen where the play was
given this week raised expectations
that the play was far superior to The
Clansman" and the acting was far
and away better than that in the
play that Philadelphia has suppressed.
But the audience in Raleigh did not
so regard it out felt that The one
Woman" is hardly in the same class
with Dixon's virile first play.
The "ClanSman' was Dullt
about an epic period. 1t touched fun
damentalS with the finger of fire. Its
action was swift and terrible and true.
To look at it was to be breathless. 1t
was a play which could be followed
only at q strain. The bond. between
audience and stage was perfect. In
that play the cruditieS Of the cast We're
powerless to affect the horrible but
fascinating grip of the play. 1t was
strong and virile and as such it could
not be denied.
The One Woman suffers III re
membrance of The ClanSman.' The
book is a volcano of passion; the play
lacks it's fire and motif. Both books
were Dixon and had the Dixon blood
and marrow. In the play of The
ClanSman" nothing of the power OF
the story was lost. In THE one Wo-
man. the novel has been so tameC
down and. changed that you scarcely
recognize the terrible problem of So
cialism that it was written to portray
Yet last nights audience was pleased
From the neWSpape notices the pub
lie had been led to believe that 1.-The
y One Woman in the play was bull
about a "prOblem;" that it was a ser
mon; that it stripped Socialism bare
by portraying a man caught in thu
meSheS of its tenetS who ESCAPED witt
agony into a regeneration of truth anC
love. That was the story as graph
cally told in the novel. IN the play
the Socialism was so toned down a:
not to give the lesson that the bOOf
portrayed in such a way as to hOlC
the audience GREATNESS as did the
rendition of the "Clansman.'
This rendition of THE One WO-
man. when the one and temper O
the book is recalled, is like moon.
light unto sunlight, as water unto
Wine."* 1t lacks the DiXOnian siren
uosity and fervor, and in adapting i
for the stage it has lost in power
what it gains in conventionality.
Cast Did Better in Evening.
The acting at the matinee was large
ly disappointing. At times Lawrence
Griffith. as Frank Gordon, hero, ap
preached something in character Will
HIS WAN tNAN
At a call for passion, however. he wa!
inadequate. LeOnOra Won Ottinger
adventures, had the air and the eye
of a lay figure for the display of fin
clothes, which she carried with {
manner. She had also a mellow cur.
gle, which has been the way with ad'
venturers since the memory of theatrt
ire gOers runneth not to the contrary
Lydia Knott, as Ruth SpOttsWOOd
the One Woman" had a deep. chest!
tone and an effective use of large
eyes and a pretty mouth, which put:
her firmly in the class of those whom
the p~ress-agents define as "splendlC
emotional actresses" Austin Webb
as Mark Overman, banker, could no
forget that he had played Sila:
Lynch in the "~Clansman.' He played
that part magnifcently, but the man
ner and enunciation which were s,
effective with the negro Lieutenan
Governor, We're markedly out O
drawing in the part he is now playing
The comedy lights consisted in tn
work OF the younger set of true lover
and the old comic situation of thu
German professor-woman-hater and :
man-hater old maid, who became. o
course, mutually fascinated, to tn,
making of comedy "relief.' Prot
Schmltt displayed a bit of Davi,
his audience.
AT the evening performance
n company acted up to it's bet
Ter house; the players put NOR
enthusiasm into their lines and tn
play Won age" which often re
suited in liberal applause. Charlie
Fischer, as Professor Otto Schmitt
was a faVorite, as was Jacob Einsteir
the jewish Socialist. to whom the lac'
of a "dlvlsion" brought pain. Tn
several Scynical passages of Overma
were well read in a way that caugh
the audience. Kittie, as ingenu
was effective. and Ruth SpOttsWoo
did not want for appreciation in he
Glove sentiments" Although Socialism
is not a Southern problem, such "ser
timents' as We're against it met wit
recognition, and when Dick Adam
stated that he had got his pan of goi
out of a hole which his father shove