Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-01-31
In the Spotlight

N HE Majestic will offer it's first prob
lem play this week in Seymour
Obermer's House of Bondage"
1t deals with the English divorce law,
which allows a man to divorce his
wife for infidelfty, but gives the
woman no such privilege, touching the
old question of one law for a woman
and another for a man.
Problem plays usually point a moral
or voice a protest or, in their failure
to do either effectively seek justifica-
ton in the plea that they are a por-
trayal Of life" Oftener than not ex-'
cepting the works Of the really great
dramatists, the moral is so obvious
that it needs no dramatic elucidation
or emphasis, and the life" is patho-
logical. Without prejudging The
House of Bondage taking into con-
sideration only the divorce theme, as
given in the advance announcements,
the play. seems to fall into the last
classification. If, like Nora, the
woman had the courage to leave her
husband, the protest might be effec-
tive. Inasmuch as she does not do
So we must fall back either on the
moral or the artistic justification in
the reputed vraisemblance of life. AS
to the moral, it would appear even to
most unsophisticated that the mans
faithfulness and refusing to give his
wife her liberty, is not all that it
should be, and in this can expect no
startling revelation of ethical truth, or
unveiling of deep hidden moral turpi-
tude. There still remains the picture Of
life
It's true but is it art? That is, sup
posing, for the sake Of the quotation
that it is true, is it true, is it really
art? And need it be true in order to
be art? You answer emphatically
yes. And yet how much good art is
gross eXaggerationi Such plays conform
to a truth, not to the truth, and this
conformity always is within the limits
of a hypothesis. For instance: Much
has been said about Eugene Walters
new play, THE Easiest Way" and it's
faithfulness to life. The producing
manager said he never had done any
thing more lifelike than the boarding
house bedroom. 1t was announced that
author and manager searched New
York from one end to another before
they found the right bedroom after
which to model the one on the stage.
The question is, if the bedroom which
they eventually found was so lifelike
why did they have such a hard time
finding it? If it was lifelike it must
have been so only to the person who
lived in it. If Mr.. Obermer had sought
two persons in real life with the pur-
he doubtless would have had as much
difficulty as the stage manager search
ing for the boarding house bedroom
He would have found a man who was
unfaithful but unlike the one who ap-
pears in the play, concealS it; he
might have found women who had
broken their marriage vows, and GER
tainly he would have a diversity of
divorce laws, and after all these had
been eliminated, he would have a very
small residuum answering to the ex-
act conditions. Which means that
such writer's take a cross section of a
very small excresence of life and mag
Nifty it as typical of the whole. When
you exclaim, God, that's life as peo-
pie are wont to do either when they
see a shocking stage portrayal of
something they have scarcely dared
allude to, it must mean either that YOU
have great familiarity with just that
kind of life, or else this thing is COM
monplace. Which it is not, or you
would not be shocked. So the reason
Broadway is thrilled by 1.-THE Easiest
Way and calls it 'life,'' is probably
because on Broadway drabs and cour-
tesans have a more important place in
the cosnic order than they have else
where.
But the point is that Mr.. Walter and
Mr. Obermer leave out of account the
great ma jority of men and women who
live orderly ana OecSHL lives, stay at
home nights, pay their debts and save
their money to educate the children.
When Laura Murdoch, the wanton,
calls for her maid to powder her nose,
after she has ruined man and sent
him away cursing her, you sit up
straight and exclaim, God, that's life"
If the picture were that of a happy
domestic scene, it would arouse no
such reaction. and yet how much near
er life it would be than the other.