The Washington herald., 1907-10-15

Thomas W Broadhurst, and It sticks
pretty closely to the main theme OF the
novel
Let it be said at the outset that as
presented by Virginia Harmed, Mr.. John
Mason, and an excellent acting company,
Anna Karenina" is play OF intense
emotional moments, strong situations,
and appeals TO the surface sympathies
that are so subtle and adroitly put that
they threaten 10 be most dangerous TO
the average theater-goer. That the play
Is clever entertainment. considered
solely as such, no one can deny. II is
full Of life, color. and character. Its Sc
rious moments are we'll set of with com
edy, which. If not OF high class. is still
like Bassanio's bond-suffclent. Scenical-
ly. It has all the art that liberal stage
management could possibly give il. and
with all his trying In many melodramas.
Mr.. Lincoln J. Carter has never yet put
on SO realistic train effect as that IN
the last act Of Miss Harned's play. Why.
even the steam was reall
Anna Karenina" is another one of those
plays built on the Camille Gautier motif.
genre are the same-have been the same
from time immemoriaI-so that one won
ders that the modern dramatist should
think them worth while; they would not
If they could remember Tennyson's-
Most can raise the flowers n0w.
For all have got the seed
Briefly. the story of the play Is this
II opens at the house OF Prince silva
OblOnsky, at Moscow. He Is the brother Of
Anna Karenina, and he is a devil among
women" as he says. It is because he
has been unfaithful to his wife that he
sends for Anna to get his wife TO forgive
him. She does so. At Prince Stiva's
house she meets Vronsky and falls in
love with him. Up to this time she has
been faithful to her husband, Alexis Kar-
emma. and her little son. She Is faithful
still, but she leads Vronsky on until,
in the hrst scene OF the second act, while
she is at the races. Vronsky tells her
that he loves her.
Her husband finds II out and takes
her home. In the second scene of the
act he leads her by a trick 10 confess
her love for Vronsky-and a cruel trick
IL is IN the third act she is In Venice
IN a palace with Vronsky. Her husband
VIII not grant her a divorce, but that
does not much matter. as both are very
happy in the first flush OF love. The
fourth act returns TO st. Petersburg,
where Anna comes, risklng everything
to see her child. She is discovered by
her husband and ordered out of the
house. The first scene OF the last act
shows Vronsky's home in Moscow. Kare-
nina has been induced 10 grant the d.
vorce, but now Vronsky is firing and
does not want to marry her. She finds
that he has gone off with another woman,
promising her to return at 10 the next
morning. She sends a note, begging him
TO come. He returns a curt answer. She
throws herself under the wheels Of
passing train.
That is the story, stripped of its senti-
mentality and its emotional appeal. the
story. naked. without the stage illusion,
which is all designed to direct the sym
pathy OF the audience toward this poor
weeping woman; this woman. so eleverly
portrayed by Miss Virginia Harmed, who
weeps copious founts Of tears that trickle
through fingers laden with costly dia-
monds. Undoubtedly there are tender.
hearted women In the audience. and
many men, too, no doubt. whose hearts
60 out 20 the intense sorrow and the
suffering OF this poor Anna Karenina-
And 1t Is Just in that fact that the mis-
chisf Of such plays as this lays.
In motif, the plays Of this genre are
all the same-the only difference between
them is their environment. one in France
one IN America, one IN Russia; hu
man nature is much the same wher-
ever you go. But what the makers of
these plays seem to forget is that the
human laws are the same also, and that
an appeal TO our sympathies on wrong
grounds-no matter how cleverly 1t may
be presented-ls false art. false ethics, and
false morals.
Let US consider the case Is there in
this play-it Is the same with all the
others-anything at all to show contrition
for wrong done? Not a wOrd Here is
& woman-not young girl, led away
blindly, but a woman, knowing right from
wrong-who deliberately chooses the
wrong. She leaves responsibility and
a young and beautiful child and a
husband. whom she herself says Is
honorable and upright even If he
is a brute. and goes of seeking
pleasure and love with another man.
Superhcially considered. It may seem BIT
ter that the loving mother should not be
allowed to see her child, and In case the
audience should not quite catch the point
OF sympathy here, there is the trick of
tearing the child away from its mothers
arms a Ia Richard III But has not such
a woman forfeited the wright 10 her child:
and what should one think of the father
who should allow his wife-not repantant
but sorry only for herself that she can
not lose respeetability and respect and
have them, too-to return to contanninate
the youngster?
When does she cry? There is never a
tear for the child left without a mothers
care; left 10 the mercy Of strangers, and
With the inevitable knowledge into which
he must grow, that his mother wes an
evil woman. Her tears are only for her
self. and she sheds them copiously. and
the sentimental in the audience weep with
her. And when the man she. has chosen
gets tired of it, as she has already got
tired OF the man who chose her to be his
wife, grows Indifferent, what is left for
her? She has nothing to fall back upon
Selnshly she has lived; she has sought
pleasure she has had it. long. blissful,
happy months OF il. and now-stripped
of its glamour and its false pretense-an
she is weeping for is that she. like so
many women. hates TO pay the price.
All through the play there IS sort OF
symbolic dream of Anna Karenina has. IT
Is Of an old moujik on the railroad
Whenever he has appeared in her dreams
he has seemed to presage disaster. In
this last scene Of ALL when all she has
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