Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-06
PASSION AND PROBLEM PLAYS

Los Angeles has just had a week OF
the passionate drama, in five INSTALL
ments. and is now drawing breath after
the most strenuous six days of its re-
cent theatrical experience-and the
most discussed.
And in retrospect Los Angeles is talk
ing inventory of this week of problem
plays and is wondering just what, if
any, lessons 1t may CLEAN from them.
That 1t should look for any lessons
is quite natural. Whatever the present
conditions which hedge about the
drama, as syndcated and put wholly
upon monetary basis, the traditions
of the stage Justify one in seeking not
only entertainment but profit there
from. The stage was once-now long
agone-a most useful aid to education
1t taught by means of the eye-the
simplest and most direct of methods.
AS far back as literature extends, even
into the days of the glory of Greece,
the drama as an educational power was
looked upon with great respect
But the stage nowadays is almost
wholly given up to mere entertain
ment. Its higher uses have faded
away in the universal desire for amuse-
ment. People are not in the habit of
learning lessons from offerings on the
boards. They merely go to laugh or to
cry as the case may be. This is un-
fortunate; it hurts the stage tremen-
dously, but it is true, nevertheless.
Miss Nethersole claims that she pre-
sents the problem drama for educa-
tional purposes; that she depicts wick
ed women that good ones may see
what fate o'erhangs their unfortunate
sisters, and take warning therefrom.
If this be her sincere purpose, it is
laudable. But does she achieve her
aim? one would be hazarding much
to say that she does.
The problem play is old; almost as
old as the stage itself So is sin. But
it is yet to be recorded that any one
was prevented from SHINING by the play
of this sort. The very sort of woman
who is III them set forth is quite fond
of witnessing problem dramas, and of
weeping over a Camille, a Paula Tan
queray or a Sapho; yet is she thereby
induced to turn from the error of her
ways? Hardly. Nor is she impressed
with the oft reiterated fact that 1.-The
wages of sin is death"-or as Miss
Nethersole prefers, 'is living punish
ment." She sniffles about the woes
and weaknesses of others; she goes
right on with her own.
Good people, it would seem, hardly
deserve this lesson, or need it; they,
presumably, are safeguarded by their
own righteousness. The good people
who attend these plays are usually past
the age when temptations of this sort
carry theW astray. Young men and
women are often forbidden the theater
during such a season lest the very
opposite OF the effect intended be i'm
pressed upon them. And those who do
attend are already pretty we'll sophis-
ticated in this day and age and know
quite as much as, if not more than
the characters portrayed. Thus they
are not reached in the way intended
at all.
No, the problem play, Miss Neither
sole and good theatergoers in general
the problem play is not a great moral
teacher. 1t may have been once when
the stage was an educative power, but
not now. At present it is a vehicle
for an emotional actress to display her
art, and it is a powerful attractive
agent for money at the box Office
and as this is the real purpose of the
modern theater, it succeeds tremen-
dously
But that is all.