Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-19
MUST END Happily

The presentation of play by Arthur
Wing Pinero at local thsater this week
reminds those who are receptive to such re-
minders that Pinero is one of the few mod
ern playwrghts who does not believe in.
and therefore eschews, the happy ending"
In very few OF the Pinero plays do things
come out all right and the stage floating in
! syllabub and treacle with the fall of the
| final curtain. In this connection. grizZled
folks who claim to know, and probably do
know. a great deal about the game of life.
maintain that very few of the actually
F., serious affairs OF actual life wind up in the
| sugarishly sweet and satisfactory manner
| that marks their termination in the efforts
| of most modern dramatists and noveists.
| And yet, the producers of plays and the
| publishers of books of fiction almost nfal-
| libby insist upon the ''happy~ ending" They
| demand 1t the price of their production
| of the work-on the stage or between the
| covers of printed book.
| you've got to get these people together,
! somehow another the theatrical man.
ager says to the playwright whose play
sidesteps the happy ending" you've got
| to get EN- out of their scrape and start EN-
off together. I'm not going to send folks
out of my theaters with crouch. That
| the way they d reel II you allowed TINS mn
| ish of yours to stand as 1t is. You patch
| the thing up. somehow or another, and 1--WE
| us curtain at the finish that'H send the
| people out front away in a decent frame
| of mind, and then Well talk business.
| 1t is futile for the playwright on the
| heels of such an adjuration, to protest that
there isn't the slightest feasible chance on
earth for him to straighten IS play out for
| a happy ending that the whole artistic
| effect of the design of the piece would be
| destroyed if he attempted anything so
! banal that he has depicted a finish that Is
! the only logical finish after the oblique
| activities and the offside Vaccinations of
! the plot, and that the whole fabric would
be rendered ridiculous not to say idiotic, If
a wholly impossible happy ending were
to be tackled onto 1T. 1t is futile for the
| contention unless he be one of the top
notchers in his profession. whose plays the
| managers simply must produce just as they
| are written
| But the playwright who has not yet COM
pletely arrived" who is not in the position
! to dictate to producers. and who Is utterly
which means royalties IN this age-has no
| such a clutch the situation. He must
! tack on the alrs-well. married happy
ever-after finish somehow or another. He
| does it with groan. and he repeats the
groan when he hands over the butchered
| piece to the manager for final review.
1.-The wind up" he says to the manager.
| gloomily, makes the piece pure drivel from
! ing. The thing doesn't mean anything now.
| It's utter rot. whereas if you'd stood for
| the finish as originally wrote it. why"
That's all right, my boy. atout the drvel
part of it, says the manager, rubbing his
hands he reads over the SNUG new
| finish We'll get 'em out Of the house
feeling good, and that's the main thing
The women who attend the theater. you
see. demand 1t. They insist that everything
shall be fixed up at the finish. They go
| away and knock play that doesn't give
EN- a wedding-bells wind-up. at least a
chance for future wedding bells, with the
| final drop of the curtain. They tell friends
that the piece is gloomy and horrid and that
hashes it. want EN- to boost, see? Women
make the box office sheet look rosy nova
days. and they have got to be satisfied.
And the women never pick any artistic
flaws in the piece that doesn't wind up
happily Women as a matter of fact, while
they're pretty shrewd. are not very expert
enced. They only think they are. That's
the reason they imagine the happy ending
| is always all right and just as it should be.
The men In the audience know different,
but they don't care. one way or the other.
They may even sheer at the happy finish.
percelving that it Is not in consonance with
opinions to themselves in these matters, as
rule. and If there women folks are salts
fed they let 1t go at that
Sometimes the protesting playwright who
Is compelled to write foolish happy finish
to the play he has offered to the manager
makes this argument:
But see here take Pinero. Take his
Iris for example. You know what colos-
sal success Iris was. Well, you remember
the finish of Iris? The heroine lands on
| the streets Of London. She Is turned adrift.
And any reasonable man or woman, seeing
! that play felt in his or her heart and soul
that the woman was doomed to just such
a fnish-that her lies and shiftings about
| and extravagances and selfishnesses were
bound to fetch her up at such a finish soon
| err later. And yet that inevitable finish
didn't initiate against the success of that
great play. Again, take lbsen. He believed
that all of the tragedy of life began after
the mating season. as it has been called.
With fine disregard Of the general Idea
that the whole universe revolves around
unmarried lovers. Ibsen almost invariably
starts his central figures off as married
! people. Nor does he make the slightest
effort to extricate these married folks from
the bog in which they mire themselves.
How about it?'
The manager grinned deprecatingly.
"Er-Pinero and Ibsen, l believe you
| said?" he observed, dryly. ''Umm. Pinero
and Ibsen. Well, femme tell you something
When you reach the play-makng stature
and the worldwide fame of Pinero and
Ibsen just you fetch any old thing that
you've got to me and watch how grab it
| out Of your hands and produce it without
even dreaming of venturing to make one
suggestion to you about anything in the
piece. Mister Shakespeare, you know. was
a bit up-stage when he inquired. What's
| In name?' There's lot in a name, my
son. and you know it. That's all. AMBER
| we'll, you amt just exactly Pinero or Ibsen
yet now, you. on the level?''
Thus squeched, the playwright had no
more observations to make parallel
cases to cite in connection with his en-
forced job of sticking a happy ending"
onto his play.
The happy ending business is viewed
by the publishers Of works Of fiction from
a point of view that Is virtually identical
with that of the managers.
Ninety five per cent of the readers Of
fiction in the United States" the publisher
infallibly says to the writer who brings him
a book in which the finish is not all cakes
and ale for all hands. ARE women, and
youngish women at that. They are women
as rule, who are thinking pretty keenly
on the subject Of marriage. Amy novel that
does not terminate at the altar or, at any
rate, point the way for the and the
girl of the story to reach the altar sooner
or later, is direct affront upon these
feminine readers. They consider 1t so, and
they ought to know. l have heard them
talk. Many women want to be assured Of
such a finish before they plough through
the book. And when they read a book
through, only to find their hopes for a
happy union between the and the girl
are not realized by the writer, they dash
the book down with Impotence and tell
their friends that the book Is dreadful or