Los Angeles herald., 1909-07-20
BY w. HERBERT BLAKE

mhhbohs bhbiSis - 'N'hANN @N'SN'
BY w. HERBERT BLAKE
w HEN Charles Ram Kennedy
wv built up the synthetic symbol
W ism of his greatest play he failed
to reckon with the popular imagina-
ton. Like most potential playwrights,
he probably underestimated the power
of suggestion to the masses. If he
feared for his drama at all he doubt
less dreaded the possible penalty OF
shooting over their heads" So he told
his story quite simply, avoiding the
peril of a direct allegory and construct
ing a plot which stands the test OF
matter of fact fidelity to life with
scarce a strain on credulity This alone
would have made THE Servant IN the
House" successful If hardly famous.
But he did more. The spell of the
symbolist is on this facile British
dramatist, and, little by little, we may
imagine it making itself felt In MS
lines and in the character of Manson.
When the play was finished he found
that he had created a character which
mirrored with marvellous accuracy the
Christians conception of his Masters
human nature, the English churchman $
ideal of a bishop of His flock and the
IItopian Socialists vision Of cham
pion of the oppressed. On this trinity
the author has based his Manson and
with this explanation of that strange
and subtle personality there can be no
quarrel, allowing for the elastic mys-
ticism of the far east, which colors his
simpler speeches and remembering the
elemental symbolism of the drama as
q clew to those sentences which seem
to claim divinity.
But those who saw the play would
not have it So Despite the simply
rational explanation of the bishop of
Benares Identity as prelate and
brother and aided by a cumulative
exaggeration of facial characteristics in
an apparent striving after visible re-
plica of the founder of Christianity,
the impression has gone, and still goes,
widely abroad that Manson is intended
as a sort of reincarnate Christian idea
which hopelessly confuses the teachings
of both Buddhism and Christianity,
and which attains only a cheap and
tawdry advertisement of the play. The
objection to this travesty on reverence
and dramatic truth is really the artistic
one that to make Manson a reincarna-
ton of Christ utterly prevents his serV-
ing as a symbol Of the Christ nature,
for the essence of the symbolism is in
the realistic possibility of regarding the
character which represents 1t as merely
a man. This idea Mr. Kennedy wrought
out with care in Manson, l believe,
with the result that the radiance of
diviner light and life only family
touches his words and acts, as the IN
fluence of any master may illuminate
a disciple. To badly interpret the
character as reincarnation is as much
an affront to reason as to religion.
It was with curiosity as to how a
practically new cast would meet tnls
Il 1 1Ns.aNlN In
kennedy play that many in the Mason
audience visited that playhouse last
evening The result was highly COM
plimentary to the individual abilities
of Wilfred Roger, who played Manson,
but 1t emphasized the danger to a Sc
rious drama of injudicious critical her
aiding and lnulscrlmlnaUe advertising
of its eccentricities. The moment one
thought of the Manson of the play as
q possible reincarnation that moment
the character became impossible. De-
spite facial simlarities and his active
Christianity, this servant visibly eX-
nresses neither the Christians idea or
q Goldman nor the rationalist's theory
of a human Jesus of Nazareth. There
is something lacking to such view,
which forces one instantly to abandon
it, and regard Manson once more as
the Elder Brother, the Good Shepherd,
the Savior of the lost-all these, as
one profane moment as the central
figure of history, in embodying whom
even the peasants of Ober Ammergau
have signally failed,
II was not Mr. Rogers fault that
this doubt is aroused in our minds Pri-
marily, it must be ascribed to the diff
flculty in following a symbol in the
poetic way without confusing 1t at
once with the thing or being SYM
bolized A child and only a child can
do this. for only q child ever really
lives in the fatherland of dreams and
emblematic myth, and it was only a
child, perhaps, in the drama who un-
derstands Manson and wins his entire
trust.
So. again. it was the simple, child
like way in which Miss Gwladys Wynne
slipped into the character of little Mary
that chiefly impressed me last night
among several able representations by
Henry Miller's associate players. Alone
among them she seemed to live the
part. with never a lapse into the ac-
tress. And so it was that Mary's faith
became a shining symbol that led the
Way through the labyrinth of misun-
derstanding and hate. And this too. I
believe the author intended should be.
In the face of much contradictory
testimony as to the authors intention
for the character Mr.. Roger acted Man.
son with restraint and moderation
throughout. BY his simplicity and
cendor he managed to make the role
both human and mystic, with certain
marked survivals of the episcopal dig
nitv which solved one veXing mystery
of the first presentation--why the bish-
on of Lancashire should think at first
meeting he recognized his brother prel-
ate of India in the person Qf house
hold meniaI The quiet humor with
which Mr.. Roger invests many a sit
uation saves the probabilities of the
role. and in nowise mars the symbol
ism He also demonstrated that he
knows how to efface himself with dig
nitv-a trait the lack of which would
prove fatal to the success of more than
one leading actor on the American
stage in the part.
Mr. Dalton was strong and superb
as the Drain Mana part which any
audience is swift to seize upon as the
symbol Of oppressed and exploited