Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-06

TT is a current fashion to sneer at
the play which is created merely
n for entertainment Some serious
persons seem to think that a dramatic
product which makes for nothing more
ponderous than human happiness has
no right to be. We are told that the
drama is a power for good, not mere
business proposition. That is so, much
gained for sincerity, but the remaining
difficulty is to discover what we mean
by good 1t is a sad fact. but true.
that the writer's of problem plays do
not evince any particular unanimity
on this point
To Joseph Medill Patterson, for in
stance, it seemed good to reveal the
responsibility of a powerful newspaper
of "The Fourth Estate" which the
Belasco stock company will soon pro-
duce in this city. The man who fights
for a principle finally commits suicide.
Is it good to dishearten men who
are striving, however weakly, for JUS
tice by pointing this out to them as
the supposedly necessary climax of
their endeavors?
Paula Tanqueray was a woman who
had gone wrong. A good man mar
ried her Still she went wrong.
Eventually she shot herself. Probably
Sir Arthur Wing Pinero wrote about
her with the honest conviction that
hts drama was power for good. Yet
what is the moral, and where the gain
TO the great public? Does it lie' in de-
riding the ideal of a noble if impru-
dent husband? or are we to find it in
the fatalistic thesis of necessary dam
nation for the erring? Truly the hu-
manitarian dramatists are less hu
name than the medieval inquisitors.
fhpV
matte.
"Magda" is the drama of woman's
revolt from home and its influences,
kindly but cramping. It ends in a
tragedy. The father cannot master
the terms of his prodigal daughters
philosophy. Here is truth to life, but
here is no true tragedy, I'VE are not
purified by pity or terror" Our
spirits are merely depressed by a ter
ribe rift in human nature, relentlessly
barred to our gaze 1t is realistic. 1t
is true to certain phases of life. Yet
Sudermann himself would hardly dare
affirm it was a power for good"
among other reasons because he does
not seem to have believed in good as
an active force when he wrote it,
These are quite random examples.
They might be multiplied. 1t Is not
argued here that these plays are in
artistic, although the claims of a mere
the muses. is at least debatable. 1t is
asserted, however, that by no con-
ceivable twist of Ingenuity can they
be proved to be powerful or even
practically serViceable in the cause of
morality. They are frequently excel
lent entertainment. "Magda" is a mar
vel of construction. THE Second Mrs.
Tanqueray' affords opportunity for
some impressive and significant acting.
1.-THE Fourth Estate" by all accounts.
is a gripping play, brilliant in it's eX
posure of evils in modern conditions.
1t has done very well in the east and
is now being played in Chicago to in
terested audiences.
We are wiser for having seen it. Are
we better?
Why must the writer of a problem
play give over, in almost every case,
his clutch on the anchor of human
hope? Why is Ibsen a pessimists- and
even Charles Klein, in "The Third
Degree" complacently tolerant of an
inequitable climax? Perhaps it is be-
cause they have all forgotten the basic
human quest for happiness as the
foundation of enduring drama. Great
tragedies may let their victims die Sc
cure in a confidence of personal JUS
tice and honor. In the issue of a
jungle fight there is neither.
There are problem plays which dare
to end in a real, If subdued. triumph.
Such was 1.-The Writing on the WALL"
in which the wife conquered her cal
lous husband by sacrifice and suffer-
ing. Such is George Broadhurst's s
1.-The Man of the Hour" Such, too,
for all its dainty musical motif, was
THE Climax"
To create such is the task of the
coming generation of dramatists. And
in the meantime, while according due
honor to the writers who have made
us think, let us not forget our Hoyts.
our Tarkingtons and our AIDES. who
by evoking the ancient and sturdy
spirit of human mirth have frightened
a few hours and perhaps kindled few
hopes which may too, be "a power
for good