Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-11-24
The Foreign Stage.
special Correspondence Of The Star.

Henry Bernstein Is the man of the mo-
msnt in the playgoing world on both sides
of the English channel All Paris Is
fiocl1ing to the Theater Renaissance to be
thrilled by his new play, Samson" and
his success of last season, THE Thief
(which you already have had in the United
states), scored heavily at the st. James
this week when produced for the first
time by George Alexander.
Not since Sardou's "Sorciere," probably,
has a new production in Paris aroused as
much interest here as did that of Sam
SON." The successor of 1.-The Thief
proves almost a great drama, but that it
can be translated successfully into Eng
lish Is doubtful. The French critics are
lauding it to the skies, and it deserves
their adjectves- considered from the
French standpoint. American and Eng
fish playgoers, however, do not care for
sheer brutality. and Samson is sheerly
brutal.
In the third act of Samson for ex-
ample, is one speech which simply could
not be rendered into English This speech,
uttered by the hero as he all but chokes
tho life out Of false friends body, is
veritable torrent of invective. Foul as
the soiled waters of a sewer a French
critic calls it. and If it is SO in French
one can imagine what it would be in Eng
would be to rob the speech of its undeni-
able forcefulness land naturalness, too, as
coming from man of the heros type
that is. former decker turned million
aire).
The story is that of a money king who
ruins himself in order that he also may
ruin the treacherous friend who has stolen
his wife's affections. But this modern
Samson. as drawn by Bernstein. is such
coarse brute as to be 'sympathetic"
only by contrast with even more repellent
characters, of whom there are several IN
the play. One of these is Jerome LIE
Gown, the false friend who betrays the
trust of Millionaire Brachard. lie GOWN
is thoroughly bad lot, who is not even
faithful to Nine. Brachard after he has
won her, and it is the woman's discovery
of this which leads her to confess her
own fault to her husband. Then it Is that
Brachard remembers Samson's death. and
thinks that such a man as he is might
sacrifice his own happiness and wealth
if only he could bury lie Gown beneath
the ruins. Accordingly he works a panic
on the bourse, and while the shares which
constitute his own fortune drop point by
point he keeps LIE Gown with him until
that ScoundreIS ruin is accomplished, too,
after which he forces him to marry a
woman with multi-colored past, to
whom. for some reason unknown, the
author gives an English name.
Bernstein evidently does not write with
an eye to royalties from the Anglo-Saxon
countries, but he knows how to please
French audiences. On the first night at
the Renaissance the applause was deaf
ening after Brachard's awful TRADE
against lie Gown, and was renewed after
a striking speech by the wife of the self
ruined millionaire. When her aristocratic
relatives urge her to divorce him after his
fall, the woman replies: mo. l was not
rented to Braehard-I was sold to him.
and she remains by his side. AS matter
70. c-t1a hos IN nv
"Son Pere'' is quite another matter.
"Her Father" as the new comedy at the
Odeon will be called in English, should
please English and American audiences as
much as My Wife" has done. and will be
done into English by the same Yankee
dramatist, Michael Morton.
Live My Wife" again. however, Her
Father" has been acquired by the man
agemert of the London Haymarket and
will be tried there before it Is played at
home Incidentally, this London play
house needs a winner badly. Sweet Kitty
reer. To begin with, THE Education OF
Elizabeth" Is to be transferred there, but
no doubt Her Father will be put on just
as soon AS Morton can finish his work of
adaptation.
Novelty of situation is absent from this
French comedy. 1t Is true, but 1t is pref
ty." Just as My Wife" was and viii be
running at the Paris Odeon, for months
to come. judging by the rush for seats
The '.unspiced play, by the way. seems
to be gaining popularity steadily in the
French capital where a few years ago
there would have been no public for
trihe like Her Father
The father mentioned in the title Is miss
ing when the curtain rises. In fact. 1t Is
generally supposed that he Is dead, tor
daughter, Jeanne Orsier, for one month in
every year, he never has exercised that
right. You will gather that there has
been q divorce, and In the beginning we
see Miss Jeanne with her mother and wit
ness her wooing by young man VINO Is
Just starting of to make his fortune in
the Sudan. The latter Is accepted by the
girl, who agrees to wait for him, and at
this point her missing father turns up.
He has become rich in Russia, 1t seems,
and now claims the month Of his daugh-
ter's society to which he Is entitled.
SO Jeanne, much against her will, goes
to live with Orsier pere, whom she at first
detests, and practically all the rest OF the
play Is devoted to the parents efforts to
overcome this dislike. He finally sue
ceeds, and in a really fine scene tells the
girl. who is seated on his knee, how much
he has lost by never having known the
love of his child. 1.-The love of children"
he says, lis rooted in parents kindness,
but the love OF parents in sacrince- He
never has sacrificed anything to Jeanne,
and SO he almost fiercely claims the right
he has lost. Then the mother comes in to
take Jeanne back. She declares that
Charles shall not see the girl till next
year, but he protests that now he has
once got to know and love her he cannot
live without her. Both of them argue the
case bitterly and passionately, but the
man wins in the end by calling in Jeanne
to decide. hSe admits that she would
wish to continue to live near her father,
and then when her mother reproaches
her with setting the petting of three weeks
on a level with the devotion of lifetime,
the girl is perplexed. The browning argu-
ment is brought by Charles Orsier, who
asks his divorced wife what will become
of both of them when Jeanne marries. Let
them, he suggests, make the most of their
daughter while she is yet with them. and
as he waits for her answer to this last
appeal Jeanne steals up behind them,
and, taking q hand of each. silently joins
them as the curtain falls.
Curious Corsican Customs.