Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-12
Columbia Theater.

The attainments of Miss Nethersole are
such as to invite confident interest in
any new play she may care to offer. Here
tofore her endeavors have been addressed
to works which combined with emotional
fervor or philosophic discussion a certain
literary grace. There is some philosophy
and several fine emotional scenes in this
new drama, 1.-The Writing on the Wall"
Proprietors of ramshackle tenaments are
sure to be impressed by it if they can be
induced to see it. The retribution visited
on the landlord whose own child perishes
III a fire as the result of his penuriouS
negligence Is terrible in its impressiveness
and the catastrophe, unpleasant though it
may be. is reached by logical and con-
sistent course of incidents that claim ap-
pause for the author. Mr.. William J.
Hurlbut. This theme is we'll presented.
The accompanying material is not so
deftly interviewer as to prevent a shock
OF surprise at the sudden relapse of a
high minded young philanthropist into
the role of rather cheap home wrecker
or to forestall sense of familiar &C
qua intance with the episode in which the
wife's discovery of her husbands faith
lessness is made by means of a necklace
of pearls intended for another woman.
This dramatiSt delveS into human sensi-
biity with haphazard confidence and
presents his conclusions with evident con-
viction, although without effacing a GER
tain sense of confusion
The man who is at the same time Law
lshing upon woman gifts which must
mean more than idle Irritation, and who
yet yearns for the affection OF home in its
fullest sense, is much of an anomaly
as the earnest, sincere man of phllan-
thropic zeal who permits himself to be-
come in instant the embodiment of
passion and moral treachery. Such con-
ditions might exist. but they must be eX
planned with more dizziness than this play
brings to bear in order to make them
seem plausible. when attention goes be-
yond merely superficial observation. The
analysis OF event is far better than the
analysis of human character. The pun
ishment of the father, stricken by his
own greed, and the mother cry of the
woman whose one cherished hope in life
is torn from her are the two great essen
tials of the play. The great heart-sob
uttered by the mother reveals the Neither
sole art more than the pages of dialogue
which precede and follow il. The scene
is one of striking power and affords her
fine opportunity for display of the
qualities which the public has been ac-
customed to hold in high esteem.
William Morris. whom we have been ac-
customed TO welcome more or less of
a hero. has the role of the ineXcusable
husband, which he plays well Mr.. Rob-
ert +. Haines as the equally ineXcusa BILE
lover, also does some excellent acting
Mr.. Frank Craven rejoices in the most
consistently human character in the piece
and won approval. The dialogue is dis
tinguished by intense speech, including
the objurgation. the imprecation, the sup
plication and plain profanity.
Its conclusion will provide an interest
ing test of the extent to which auditors
will approve of an unhappy ending: one
whose sadness without corresponding to
the accepted notions of tragedy is hope
less and overwhelming in its pathos.