New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-02-03
DRAMA
Bisson's Madame X" at the
Ne7C amsterdam Theatre.

il was played in London last September
but not, of course. by the company which
Wednesday night assembled to present
the work at the New Amsterdam Theatre'
where the English version is known a7
Madame X In London. at the ne" 1iooo'
Miss Lena Ashwell played the prihct'a'
part. and actors to whom the tread or Ne"
York boards Is not unfamiliar were con-
spicuous in the cast, Messrs. J. H Barnes
Sydney Valentine, G. w. Arson. I. NJ
ballard and Miss Mamie Bennett oeihs
among them.
At the New Amsterdam, Madame -
is to justify the tidings which hau
flown before it. The play is of hfdeous
gloom. 1t was written around, or up TO- q
single act. an act laid in a Paris court or
law, where a degraded woman, one OF tiio
sweepings of the streets. Is tried for 'Ile
murder of her mate-a thing of evil, black
mailer rogue-in-the- blood. The accuseo
woman says nothing, reveals nothing not
even her name. II turns out that siie
wishes to avoid bringing disgrace 10 mex
son. The state assigns an advocate loI liei
defence. The name Of the advocate IS an
nounced in the court The woman shlleho
upon hearing it, and then falls into mel
vous but obstinate silence. The fact Is that
the advocate is her son-her legitimate
son, whom she has not seen IN twenty
years. He was two years old when Ills
father. her husband, drove her from nome
because she had yielded to the persuaslons
OF a lover. Now the son, who is trying
his first important case, has her for his
client He is ignorant of her identity, De
lieving his mother dead His plea in her
defence is passionate and eloquent. He
draws in glowing words what little he
knows of the outlines of the woman S me-
and with imag ination fills in the picture
which makes up his plea. The responslpilltS
for the Womans fall he fixed upon the nus
band who disowned her in her youth ne
does not dream that the man he lasheS IL
his own father, who has come to the cour'
TO listen to his sons forensic triumph Inc
defendants silence is interpreted oy the
advocate as a means taken to shelter sofle
innocent person whom she ioNeS-a soh'
perhaps Little dreams he that he Is the
son Only the woman knows. she -
acquitted. The terror of the strain mas
been too great for her. She dies upon
acuuittal, dies in the arms of her advocate
acknowledging to him her identity.
This is the last act of the play 1t Is
an act that should grip the audience
stir the emotions, claim sympathy; II
should be an act of genuine dTamatlc
power But the only thing in 1t that
rings true is young Raymond Floriots ap-
peal to the jury. There is nothing IN the
character Of the woman that calls for the
affection of the spectators of this play
Her offence of tHenty-four years ago can
be forgiven. But what happened after
that was series of catastrophes preclpl-
tated by her own lack of self-reliance,
She was weak -fbred. It is one thing to
admire her firm resolve to sacrifice her
in
order that her husband and her son shall
rot be blackmailed by the rascal with
whom she has been living; it is another
thing to take any serious interest in the
appalling life she has lived for two dec
AIDES sinking from the boulevards Of
Paris to the cutters of South American
ports, drug drenched and consorting with
men of mud and wrath. Say that the world
drives women TO this end. 1t is commonly
said but is it true? This woman had no
strength no self-respect, no quality neces-
sary to the world, even to the dregs OF the
world Pity her, yes; but why SWIVEL over
her why be n1elodranatically concerned
over her r1isfortunes which were the in
eyttable consequences, not Of her first folly,
but of her 1abby spirit? She would have
done we'll had she taken her own life tween
" wears ago but she had not spirit enough
for that She would have done better TO
lean into the Seine than into the life she
led through thinking that she had 10 live,
no matter how. The dran1atist would lash
society for it's cruelty, denounce conven-
tionality for its stony Indifference to the
lot of all who transgress against IT: but
| there is something to be said on the other
side and there is nothing wholesome in
| giving way to maudlin sentimentalitv over
! the dreary fate of those who will not strug-
| gle TO the last Jacqueline Floriot did not
| struggle. She lay down and let the brutes
| of the world trample over her. Lash soci-
| ETY. if you will, scar it with V-hite-hot pin
GERS, attack it's hypocrisy, but remember
| this-man neither sins is saved Ell
masse, the individual has his own reSpon-
| sibility There are some functions which
| cannot he exercised by proxy.
Madame X is played in four acts Tho
| first is called prologue. In this prologue
| Jacaueline returns to her husbands home
| after an absence of two years She has
heard that her son is i'll. But her husband
rejects her. thrusts her forth again and
reents too late. Jacqueine cannot be
| found. Twenty years afterward she
| turns to France a drug-soaked sot, Whin-
| ing about her love for her son. It is i'm
possible to believe in this. If the creature
| had loved her son, she pretends, all
! these years. she would not have gone to
| the cutters. The play is packed with false
! sentiment. It Is h ghastly thing. 1t is a.
| chamber of horrors set on the stage of the
! New Amsterdam. It's sympathies are twist
| ed and morbid; it is an unwholesome prod
! uct: it's reasoning is wrong, its morals
| perverted it is a work that does no credit
! to the stage, and directs the art of acting
| to morbid ends. If IT draws it will draw
! for the same cause that the trial of a
torious murderer draws. And one suspects
| that the persons who checred the affair
send bouquets to the cells of perverted
| wretches who have taken human life. The
! acting was not remarkable.
In saying that the acting was not re-
| markable an exception must be noted in
| the case Of Mr.. William Elliott, whose de-
! livery Of the young advocates speech was
passionate pathetic and impressive. And
then that excellent comedian Mr.. w. n.
Denny gave capital representation Of a
hypocritical lawyer turned professional
matchmaker q smooth unctuous person
who gets the adventurer Laroque into his
snare and precipitates the calamities which
bestrew the general road. The part of
Madame Kin other words, Jacqueline
FIoriot-falls to the lot of Miss Dorothy
DonneIly, who has been highly praised
during her tour Of the country with this
| danrase;n, nlay Perhaps expectation ran