The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-02-17
Fresh Plays Go. Stale in Gotham

BY FRANKLIN FYLES.

New York, Feb. 15-EIlen Terry ;
adoption of the most modern manner
OF drama in her first American tour In
disassociatiOn from Henry Irving.
brings upon her an avalanche OF fer
vent praise and bewailing blame. Her
start with Bernard Shaw was only a
stepping stone from mid Victorian SEN
timentality To the stark realism OF Her
man Heijermans whose play Of THE
Good Hope" is the foremost art effort
of this theatrical week. A good num-
Der of critical people on the one hand
applaud her sympathy with the prog
ress of moving times in keeping abreas 81
If the better thought by producing
HeijerIhsns, Shaw, and, as she did i'm
mediately upon her desertion of Irving,
ibsen. Another large body. staunch to
Fer charm and genius throughout full
fsrty of her fifty years of historical. ac-
itvity, bewail her. recognition of new
form of art, which they eEaeavOr 10
'elittle, and make no effort to under
stand.
The tragedy OF THE Good Hope" is to
he stage what the stories or Cork are
10 the library and what the Russian
realist's efforts at dramatic writing
have aimed to be- Heijermans is the
foremost Dutch dramatist OF the day.
and continentaily. he takes rank with
Pr-ussia's Sudermann, Silesia's Haupt-
mann. SPANS Echegaray. Denmark's
Jonas and Nor1Say's Ibsen. He pos
sesses the teachnique Of vivid sugges-
ton and vital dramatic form, the lack
Of which Keeps TolstOi and Cork, with
all tbeif greatness. just short of abso-
IIte success in the theatre. II is thus
that Hei1ermans fs able to write with
the tremendous power of simplicity.
The Good Hope is simple. It's start
discovers a dull Dutch community of
fisher folk-huInble IN It's older gener-
alton of ail-powerful ship owners, but
fraught I'm the younger generation with
the spirit Of revolt. In the central
theme, the old widow OF a fisherman.
long since lost at sea. typ1fles the peas
ant spirit Of dumb resignation. Two OF
her four SONS have been spared from
the ocean death, and the elder OF them
questions the right OF a capitalist TO
wax wealthy on the meagerly rewarded
labor OF the poor. In this and other
of daWnine thought he has
served six months IN prison ON a tech
Meal charge. and been elected from the
navy. He returns TO a community
where women. rendered husbandless by
the sea. must needs send their sons,
some no more than boys. out TO the
peril; where old men. their usefulness
exhausted by years OF labor for the f1sh.
are gTudgingly and meanly succOred in
an almshOuSe.
Presently. this rebel against hard
conditions prepares to embark upon a
fishing cruise with the Good Hope. a
ship that is rotten as are most of the
craft; and his mother old
and needy, has persuaded her younger
boy 20 make the voyage. too. That has
not been easy. for the lad IS haif-crazed
by terror of the sea. But his mothers
poverty. with his girl cousins taunts, !
induce him TO go. The mother re-
wards his bravery by fastening in his
aars the silver rings by which his IA
hers floating corpse was identified
Twelve years before. At the moment of
setting out, however. an old shipwTight
"a drunkard since his own sons death
H. the deep-reVeals to the boy the
Good Hopes unseaworthiness. The
youth is hysterical with fear. and
pleads. begs and battles to remain
ashore. But the mother, terrified by
the wrath of the ship owner aids the
llarbor police in dTa gging him to the
boat. herself loosening his clawing
hands from the door jamb TO which he
elings IN screeching desperation
In the third act. storm RACES out
ide the fishwife's cottage. One of the
old men at the almshouse and another
sre on their way to fetch a doctor. They
have given fOrlorn comfort to each /
ther, Frightening their fading. starved
days with recOllections of the adven-
lures of their youth at sea. But the
Lord giveth," says the paupeT. land the
Lord taketh away" They. he thinks.
are 10 God only as the fishes were to
him, the fishes that seemed to look up
ippealingly into his eyes as he chopped
off head after head from quirering
bodies. ! am giving space TO this be-
cause it shows the difference between
genius and mere facility in writing a
problem play.
The wives of the fishermen gother in
,he cottage. to knit i'm the light of the
are. to try TO laugh down their dread
Df the storm. in spite of their appre-
tensions. The details are pitiful. and
hey lead up to tidings that the Good 1
Hope has foundered. At the end of the 1
play We sce the Office Of the owner. He I
S concerned lest the rOttenness of the /
ship be found out and the insurance /
money withheld. The eager questions |