Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-05
THE LABYRINTH
A GREAT DRAMA
TEACHES A MAGNIFICENT LES
SON AND is STRONG
Miss Nethersole's last Presentation
One Of the Best and a Decided
Treat--"sapho" Today, at
Matinee and Night

"The Labyrinth" Paul Hervieu's
play. which Miss Nethersole gave as
her last Offering for the first time I'm
Los Angeles last night, was the dra-
matte and aesthetic treat of her stay
and this, too, taking THE Second Mrs.
Tanqueray" into consideration, fine as
that was.
"The Labyrinth" treats, with infinite
delicacy, but with no lack of vigor
thereby, of the fundamentals of life
man, woman and their chlld-these
three. forming the eternal triangle
which is the basis for all human af-
fairs. All the complications of mans
existence are but variants of this trl-
angle. and all dramatic form is re-
ducible to it at last. The usual COM
bination is the man and two women,
or two men and one woman the ex-
tension of 1t to include child instead
not only makes 1t that much more
human, but it gives it n touch of
pathos, owing to the helplessness of
the third side, which intensifes it's in
terest immensely. For in this form
war, politics. business, art. invention,
poetry-all exist solely and alone to
protect and conserve this triangle,
which is the basic principle of all So
ciety. ITS safety-comfort happiness;
its infinite reproduction--these are the
real purposes of mans existence.
OF course, symbols must be used to
present this triangle to mans view,
especially on the stage and therefore
all drama deals In symbols. M. Her
vieu, understanding the bald simplicity
of this figure, has wisely chosen the
simplest tokens available whereby to
depict 1t. He gives us triangle
broken into two parts-the mother and
child sides separated from the father
side, by man-made law. Having made
it very plain that this broken and shat
tered figure is impossible. unthinkable
to nature, he again shows us in the
keenest, yet least complicated manner,
how nature destroys this man-made
separating force, or, rather, refuses to
admit it, and attempts, as is the way
of nature, to reunite the shattered
fragments that it may once more have
the perfect figure.
But M. Hervieu also sees that con-
sequences must follow the breaking;
that the crack will show, however
sllillful the mending: that there is no
escape from a violation of natures
laws, even though man does sanction
it. And therefore he does not indicate
that the triangle, even if reunited, can
endure as though the past had never
been.
No. He shows us, in a way no spec
tator of that play can forget, that the
triangle, once shattered, never can
perfectly re-exist in this world The
mother and her child are left alone;
the man Is parted from them; the
figure is severed forever. Nor can
another ever replace 1t as unit of life,
with any of these components making
part thereof.
Can you interpret the symbols and
learn their lesson? Then THE Lady,
rinth'' was written for you and its
| lesson will not be lost upon you. Can
you fail to see it's purport? Then to
you it is caviare and you would better
not have seen it. 1t is not a play that
was written for popular consumption;
Hervieu is a philosopher as well as
skilled artist, and this is like Ibsen's
great works-for the few That Miss
Nethersole has the courage to present
it is to her everlasting credit; the pity
is that it has not long since crowded
the meretricious and undefendable
"Sapho" out of her repertoire For
"Sapho" is a piece of claptrap ex-
pediency: this is a masterpiece
But one fault may be found with the
play, as such-its melodramatic ending.
Yet what would you? What else is
possible? Given a woman who has
divorced a husband whom she loves
yet and welded another man who loves
| her, but whom she only admires; have
| her meet her first husband at the sick
bed of their child and have him wiring
| from her a confession of her adora tion:
| let him follow her when she returns
to her present lord and bring them to-
gether after she has severed herself
| from both-what is left, save to kill the
two men in the least offensive way
by fall over a cliff? 1t is a laby-
rinth, in more than name, this play,
without one CLEAN of sunshine in 1t,
and its end, though overdrawn and
theatric, is consistent.
In the manner of its playing Miss
Nethersols again shows her great ver-
satility and her talent. Her Marianne
is exceptionally strong and thorough.
Mr.. Mills as her first husband, De
Pogis. is good, but Mr.. Joyce is hardly
equal to her second choice, LIE Breuill;
he is too stiff. Miss Ivan does a good
piece of work as Paulette, and the rest
are adequate and at times excellent.