The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-01-15
Attic aSS

+ play, The Servant in the House. the
most pronounced American dramatic
success of last season and which was
seen for the first time in Topeka at
the Grand last night. depends a good
\ bit upon ones views on a number of
subjects. It is not impossible to inn
4 agine a person of strictly orthodox
religious belief finding the active SYM
boil of the reincarna1ion of Christ in
! the central figure of the play, Manson,
/ the butler, or the bishop of Benares,
I sa criIegious, and it is certain that if
one were not more or less in sympathy
/ with the Fabian Socialism of the
| author, there are some passages and
| situations in the play which would
4 strike one cold and much of it's vital
significance would be lost. Ardent
Il enthusiasts on the subject of The Ser
/ want in the House will be found, al
most without exception, to be, whether
4 consciously or unconsciously, Chris
Il tan Socialists, more or less unortho-
/ dox. both as to their Christianity and
their Socialism. The Servant in the
House makes as little appeal to the
completely agnostical in belief and
training as to the unco' guide, who
i find its exposure of some of the abuses
Of the church, impious. One must at
! least have learned to love and rever-
4 ence Jesus, the man and the teacher,
/ regardless of his divinity in order to
! be thrilled and stirred by this play
/ which brings home so forcibly to those
who are ready for its lesson, the sense
/ of how far we have strayed,s priest and
/ people alike. from his beautiful gospel
/ of universal brotherhood.
i To the average playgoer, unfamiliar
/ with the story of this unusual drama,
i the first act of the The Servant in the
! House is so strange and unexpected as
to be confusing. There We're few, OF
/ course in the audience at the Grand
last night but knew the story or the
| Dlay and were prepared for its sur
j prfses Although its theme is as old
! as history its treatment is startHngly
! novel and the construction of the
drama is so old as to be new again.
Mr.. Kennedy is strict Journalist in
| workmanship and his play observes
4 the classic unities of time, place and
4 action The latter is continuous ana
! each act begins exactly where the last
one left off. There is a short wait
between the first act and the second
! and between the third and fourth, out
! between the others the curtain is low
cred only momentarlly.
| In any discussion of any proouction
4 If The Servant in the House the play
! is found TO be so very much the thing
/ that it overshadows the acting and the
! actors The personality of Mr.. Ken
nedy dominates his drama to such an
extent that it is in him, rather than
! in any of the number or capdDle play
| ers who have aided in its production,
| that public interest centers. This is
| uncommon if not unique. Most play
| wrigilts are forgotten, so far as the
| general public is concerned, Tor the
men and women who create the roles
which they have conceived and de-
| veIoped. When one speaks, say OF the
! Great Divine, one thinks not OF MI.
William Vaughan Moody loo put T. Oh u; ME- ME-
| House calls to mind its auih or, not
| Mr.. Walter Hampton, who created the
| role of Manson and toewhom, Mr. Ken
| nedy dedicated his play in its publica-
ton in. book forH.O NO recent play
/ wright has been SO much discussed as
! to his work and his personality as
| Charles Ram Kennedy.
! The strong clerical flavor of his play
! is accounted for by the fact that Mr.
! Kennedy comes of a line of English
scholars and clergymen and himself
/ studied for orders, though, by the time
| he had prepared himself for the church
| he decided that it was not his vocation.
| One of his ancestors had the chalr OF
! Greek at Cambridge and another was
writer of some note, but Mr.. Kennedy
| himself is self-educated for circum-
| stances compelled him to leave school
| at the age of ten. Nevertheless he
gave himself a thorough classical edu-
! cation including a four-years theolog1-
| cal course. After he gave up the idea OF
| going into the clergy ne went on the
| stage and was member OF Ben
| Greet's company, playing ShakeSpear-
liam rolls and in Everyman, the old
| morality play whose revival gave Edith
/ Wynne Matthison, who is Mrs Ken
nedy in private life. her first marked
/ success. MISS MdIIHlSOn pldSSu Tic
role of Auntie, the wears wife, in the
original production of The Servant in
the House. She is a cousin\of GWladys
/ Wynne, the Mary of last nights per
| Torrance, and the only member of the
| original company who visited Topeka
Mr. Kennedy owes much to 1bsen
! both as to motivation end technique
| and The Servant in the House recalls
the works of the great Norwegian dra-
matist whose influence its author rev
| erently acknowledges The play is
compact and direct in its mechanism
and eloquent in it's appeal and its ef-
feet can not fail to be salutary. The
! Servant in the House is literature as
! well as drama and in it's published
| form deserves a place in every library
1.-THE absence of the usual stage dlrec-
| the usual descriptive form of the novel
| makes it additionally agreeable from
| the readers standpoint
| The play was admirably produced in
| Topeka which, if it did not see the first
| company at least saw a superior ag-
| gregation of players. Mr.. Clay Clement
as Robert the drain man. has the big
| dramatic part and plays it superbly.
| His work is clear cut and convincing
| and he iIIumines the mysticism and
| symbolism of the play with his splendid
| intellectual grasp of the authors con-
cept There is a fine thrill in almost
! every line he speaks from his first en-
| trance and when in response to the
wears despairing cry, Il do not call
| myself a clergyman am nothing.
| less than nothfngr' he strikes his chest
/ and exclaims I'm summat! I'm the
| drainmanr' the effect is magnificent.
Mr.. George w. Wilson as the Bishop of
| Lancashire is also a finely drawn and
| remarkable delineation. Mr.. CreSton
| Clarke as Manson the butler, has won
| derful eyes and hands which he en-
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