The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-25

a i've SUBJECT both TO tnose WHO thNoT
and those. no oppose it. In the farces
Of Ssrdou it is the reality of the characters
and the plsusibility Of the action which have
given life. sven more than the fun.
Mr.. Mitchell's greatest disability-and
now we have fetched round Robin Hoods
barn--is the fact that while he is artistlcaily
more preposterous IN Gilbert he is morally
moro in earnest than Sardou. II was only
those who failed to catch the underlying
tone of disapproval who thought the play
vulgar. Those who perceived this thought
ii an infinitely more damaging thing TO a
playwright inartistic.
The pity is greater because TO any real
view this subject Of American divorce in 40
characteristic and so important. The in
tellectual movement Of which IL is a single
symptom ia responsible for what Is most
progressive In the life of our time as well as
for some ~ our most dangerous tendencies.
And II only requires a steady hand and a
responsible mind 10 MAKE IL the subject
Of tho most delicious comedy. farce or ex-
James Huneker preached the
subject in the case Of that melomaniac.
"An Ibsen Girl Mrs. Wharton treated it
with fine irony in The Reckoning 1t is a
subject Of a thousand phases and suited to a
Thousand artistic moods. II Mr.: Mitchell
had been really modern and American he
might have caught at least one viable theme
and 6xed IL in q vital and Harmonious
medium.
What he has done-let IL he said at once
and emphatioally-is to provide the pnhlio
with a highly enjoyable entertainment.
full of langhabls episodes and e~ferve~cent
lines. As has always been the case with
this artificial old commodity OF the stage,
his travesty depends very largely for its
effect upon the excellence of the actors.
There is no company better hle TO carry
its absurd and attenuated fooling than this
quondam Manhattan company, row. housed
at the Lyric. Mrs. Fiske has never been
slenderer. more girlishly pleasing to the
eye and more artistically gowned. And
her elder mood of light and sparkling
charm. to which she now reverts, is no less
authentic and potent than the somberer
moods OF her recent endeavor.
At the very end Of the piece. according to
popular report, she and Mr.. John Mason
nave a moment Of real feeling OF the utmost
charm-a moment which. as she herself
writes, has proved the most successful
OF the evening. / confess that I did not
myself feel this. but as had retreated to
the ~iostling crowd by the door in the haste
of escaping from a late performance ] arm
perhaps not a competent witness.
In It's defects az in its qualities The
Daughters Of Men" is n companion piece
10 The Lion and the Mouse" though both
defects and qualities arc less pronounced.
The first act, though dramatically weak,
avoids tho commonplace comic attempts
OF the former piece. Throughout, on the
dead level. the conversation is unreal
and generally stilted. The minor char
act~erizations. and especially the people
~ the Fifth avenue household, are con-
ventional To the point of unintended carl
cature. Never for a moment does the
play give the impression Of being a tran
script from life, or even of being an artis-
tically valued composition from it. The
relation of the whole to popular ~melodrama
is at times distressfully near In theme,
however. and in sheer dramatic force and
sincerity. the piece is Of an intensity Of
interest and power only surpassed in the
American drama by the play at the Lyceum.
These are great qualities both from the
point Of view Of art and of popularity.
The piece will scarcely duplicate the triumph
on lie LIOu duu NDo MOucC, Oub IL Olll
prove distinctly successful.
In itself the conflict OF labor and capital is.
II anything. more interesting than the greed
and tyranny Of a p%lutocrat, but as a theme
for the popular stage it presents far greater
difficulties. There the whole interest CEN
tired in a Single figure-a personality that
could he and must he developed as an indi-
vidual character. Here the conflict il be-
tween classes who are seen only in typical
representatives. hard TO realize on the stage
and harder to fuse into a dramatic whole.
IL is conceivable that a dramatist of wide
knowledge and skilled in atmospheric real
ism might have given ns intimate and con-
vincing scenes both Of wealth and of poverty
and focused them into a strong dramatic
tale. The action Of Mr.. Klein's play is linz
tied to three scenes, all Of which take place
in private apartments Of people of wealth
The first is in a fashionable drawing room
and the other two in the bachelor chambers
OF a lawyer Of wealth and education who is
an amateur of the masses. The effect is
almost as symbolical, as ~allegorical, as IA
morality play and there is the concomitant
excess Of talk and dearth Of action.
The apostle OF the Brotherhood of man.
Stedmdn (Orrin Johnson. is the conv ersa-
tional storm centre. The daughter Of labor
dorothy Dounelly) and the daughter OF
capital CEhie Shannon) are both in love
with him; and in the stress of a protracted
and ruinous strike both come at night, after
the immemorial custom of heroines, TO his
rooms. Also enter an anarchist, two labor
bosses, one honest and the other self-seeking;
two capitalists, one cruel and the other
kind; a self -seeking socialistic editor and
an honest skilled mechanic whose family
is reduced 10 poy erty by the strike. The
best scene in the play comes in the middle
CT the. second act. when the two young
women find themselves alone in Stedm1n's
rooms. As soon as Mr.. Klein gets away
from the minutia OF Characterization and
into the essential fires OF drama he always
rings strong and true. The rash fire OF the
girl OF the people is in striking contrast
with the cold dignity and inbred generosity
OF the daughter Of family, and the passage
az arms between the two is as moving as IL
Is true. But the act declines toward it's
close INTO the conventional situation of two
women in a compromising bedroom, and
-.uzAs.- EnNua,t, H.