The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1908-06-07
PLAYS CHRONICLE
LIVES OF WRITERS
Real Motives That Underlie
the Construction of
Many Dramas.

A fruitful bit OF research for the man
with the right touch and the necessary
time and industry, would be a thor
ough inquiry into the real motives that
underlie the writing of the best plays
OF today. OF every piece of writing,
dramatic or otherwise, it is reasonable
10 ask "Why?" And It is safe to say that
If what we call the great plays" now
current were put To such test, some
would be found to have been written
for the mere love of writing. some for
fame, many for bread. but the vast
majority and the really great ones. out
of the writer's desire 10 tell us the story
Of his life. The predominant trait of the
best dramatic writing today is that It is
autobiographiCals and because a man
best tells what he has actually lived,
our so-caIIed great plays owe their
greatness TO the biography that is IN
them. Thus Miguel ZamacOis as q lad
playing about in his fathers atelier.
wonderstruck before canvases on which
were painted the wisdom. the eeriness,
the pathos, the humor in the lives of
court testers, formed a love for the
creatures that never left him and that
direct his pen In the writing of the
play that Maude Adams performed over
the country this year. Tile latest play
that william Gillette write and acted
IN was largely autobiographical ia
source. Mr.. Gillette In life. long before
be became so on tho stage. was the
hero in ''ClaTice"-a story that has yet
TO be equaled by any other American
play for the terrifying depletion 1t gave
of a man vino, under L.a spell Of .
constant iutrospecton. thinks death in
evitaDle and calmly awaits its coming.
A reiguing success on tine New York
stage today rs a play taken in toto out
OF actual life. An actor nightly per
forming IN one play Of popular interest
mas but 10 walk a block from his dress
ing room and enter another theater 10
see re-euGcted an incident taken out of
his own lite, and cOUched in dialogue as
familiar TO HIM as mis- own speech. IL
Is said that the actor frequently takes
the walk and sees himself as he was ten
years ago. The prevailing trait OF all
plays written by Arthur PinerO-at least
those that are not pTOfessed comedies
is a perpetual uudertoue Of mocking
irony. From The PrOhigate," The
Second Mrs. Tanqueray," The NOtori-
Gus Mrs Ebbsmith," down 10 His
House IN Order" Pinero never lets slip
"a chance 70 lab his pen deeply and bit
terly into the hypocrisy. the smallness,
the meauness. Of Englsnd's middle
class. Nina JessOn-second wife 10 Fill
mer lesson. NJ. p, prig and mouther Of
method and Order-Why could she not
succeed IN deed as Well as in station
the sanity Annabel2f She recognized
ner deficiencies. she tried hard 10 cor
rect them. she loved Filmer, she would
90 anything Tor his Happiness. yet she
failed for the want Of a little encourage
ment. And therein lies the auto
biographical note Of His House in Or
der The pat on the back for which
Nina huuEeTed was once as eagerly
craved By Piuero himself. IL his first
days as a playwright; but il was denied
him as summarily as it was denied
Nina, and by that same psalm-singing,
cOld-blOOded. pharisaical middle Eng
lish.
The best plays Of James A. Herne.
10 whom we owe the first flicker OF a
drama distinctly American. were
transcriDuons OF incidents taken from
his own life. "Grinith Davenport %
which William Archer in a consersa-
ton lately declared 10 be the very
best American play he had seen and
one OF the best he had ever seen. IS
a dramatization Of twenty years as
they were lived by Mr.. and Mrs. Herne
One Of the lasting Impressions carried
from youth to middle age bv Franz,
Mayo was the queerIy patterned. old
a 70 a.
or his bOyhoOd home. Il had always
seemed TO him as reflective OF the
character Of the family as the clothes
worn by any Of its members. Years
afterward. when Mr.. Mayo produced
'PuGd'n Head Wilson" u one scene
OF which there was just such a living
room as Mayo knew when a boy. he
could think OF no better decoration for
it than some Of the old-fashioned wall
paper. Reauns Of it were always car
ried along in the company's baggage
and every now and then that interior
set in 'Pudd'n HeaG' was repapered
Mayo directing the job. Similar touches
In modern plays, giving them the &C
tuality and vitality that induce rs n
call them great-could be multiplied
Nor IS It a trait only peculiar TO plavs
OF our day. E,V rybOdy knows that
Goldsmith really lived before he wrote
she Stops 70 Conquer" and the plavs
Of Sheridan are practically the dra-
matized adventures OF Sheridan. It is
the autobiography in them that gave
them a vitality and human interest last
ing down TO our day. The habit Of
so building plays was rare n the eight
zenith century: il is common in the
twentieth. Its prevalence is the hone
full sign Of the quality and quantity of
the plays that viii come Of this genera
ton.
Reginald BarloWA actor, and until re-
Gently at the head Of his own dramatic
stock company has announced his in