The Washington herald., 1910-11-08
THE BELAsCO.
"Madame x.n


II there has been wonderment in WASH
ington as TO why the extraordinary in
terest in Alexandra Bissons drama.
Madame X" which has already run in
this country for nearly year, and, in
its original form. Is still drawing large
audiences in Paris, whence ii was gar
nered for American audiences by Henry
W. Savage. the causes for that wonder
ment must have been resolved last night,
when, at the Belasco Theater, an audi
ence that packed the house wept over the
strange and moving picture of the divine
significance of mother-love, You need
seek no further for the popularity of
drama Of life that. in its bald aspect, is
sombeF, drab. austere, tragic, with hardly
CLINT of happiness IA compensation. IL
is because the emotions evoked are as
universal as the cradle. as common TO all
of us as the dear arms that once we felt
about our necks-the mother-love that
all of us have felt, shielding us. guiding
as. blessing ms. as with benediction.
So often we cast aside the wondrous
gifts that God has wrought for us, as
II they were matter OF course And yet
there is scarce man in all the world
but knows that he had a mother who. IL
put TO the test. would have gone to the
very gates OF hell for her flesh and blood.
And II is such a drama as this, a mirror
of that wondrous emotion. mother-love.
that makes us realize-perhaps some of
US too late-how little we have appre-
ciated the gift OF our own mothers, whom
with their self-sacriflce and tender care
some OF US have taken as a right, over
looking the blessing.
And that Is where Madame X is so
great play. Tragic Il is. and Il violates
the canons OF the commercial theatrical
managers who insist on happy endings; IL
deals with life OF evil and il does not
blink al shame. but through 1t all the
one big fact or life stands out, appeals to
every heart in its verify and forcefulness
that above and beyond all other emo
tions. desires. feelings, is the love Of
mother for the child of her bOsom-the
greatest thing m the world.
Just 10 have that lesson hammered
home: 10 have the pOignancy OF IL call
for blessed tears from those who see 1t:
20 have thus ones faith renewed In the
sublimity that is fundamental IN human
nature-it is worth a world OF pulpit
sermons
l think, BY now. we all know the main
story of Madame X" how a woman,
rich and happy and with faithful hus-
band and baby son. leaves them all for
man she thinks she loves1 How she
seeks. in repentance, to come back; how
her husband, loving her still, but over
come by vanity and pride spurns her
from his door. Then-twenty years, For
her twenty years Of hell. A rOamer about
the world: the consort OF evil men; her
life mainly evil; self-indulgence; lover
after lover; drink, drugs-the dregs of eX-
istenee; the end or twenty years finds her
a human wreck. ...-..
But through the cutters of two con-
tinents. through all the muck and the i'll
one jewel shines, and cannot be dimmed.
II is the love she bears for the son she
has not seen since he was baby. The
tool OF every rogue in aught but this,
when one rogue seeks 10 tear the veil
that shields her son from knowledge of the
depths TO which his mother has fallen, all
that is best in her asserts itself, and,
without a thought of consequences TO
herself. rocking only of those she loves,
she commits murder.
Arrested. she refuses her name. SO she
comes 10 be known as Madame Y. By a
curious chance-if it were in real life we
should reverently call il Providence-her
son, just admitted TO the bar, is appointed
to defend her. stu she will not speak,
but that subtle something, that bond that
binds mother and son together. makes it
self felt and the boy, who has come 70
speak pet phrases and 20 win his first
case, is impelled by something better
than himself 20 put his whele heart, his
soul, into his plea; divine instinct tells
him 10 speak the truth, though he knows
1t not, and though his words condemn
most bitterly set Justly, lis father, they
a
Madame X is play that calls for
acting of the very highest order. and
though Miss Dorothy Donnelly is not
starred in this play, she Is by the pre-
eminence OF her art much bigger star
than many that are made so by man
ayers. Here is a woman who is in every
detail a great actress. She makes this
part her own; she is for the time being
this very wretched woman TO whom the
gates of paradise are barred. / wish Ii
We're possible TO express the subtlety
and delieaey of certain portions of her
most vivid presentation. Drab as she
becomes. the consort of the low, yet
ever beneath the surface. ever so dimly.
YOU are allowed. by the fineness OF Miss
DOnnellys technique, to get glimpses of
the true woman that has survived all
degradation. Her acting In the second
aNtl WAit4N sAiV AttAS A<eii odhSB was d per
feet piece OF work, but her highest
achievement was in the closing act.
where her depressed emotion in the court
room scene, eliminating in the tragic
scream when she realizes that the son
about whom she has dreamed Is indeed
before her in the flesh. was wonderfully
moving and effective. And she was able
10 AFFORD a fine contrast to this in the
closing moments of the play-mOments
in which. for the first time in twenty
years, the character is able to give her
self Up TO real and beautiful motherly
tenderness, and so dies with her sons