The Washington times., 1911-01-03
FITCHS THE CITY"
! MORBID IN EXTREME
Daring Theme Is Carefully
Carried Out BY Play
wright.
MARSHALL SCORES
AS THE DOPE FIEND
Character Portrayed One of Most
Realistic in Recent
~
- Years.

It was a subdued and sober-mindeG
audience that left the Belasco Theater
last night after sitting through the first
production in Washington of the late
Clyde Fftch's much talked of play. The
City," and doubtless the varying mix
ture of censure and praise in the minds
of that audience was as numerous as
the individuals.
They had all had thrills, thrills piled
upon thrills, many of them more like one
feels when one sees an execution for
the first time, some of them more legiu-
mate, but none of them wholesome, for
The City, is full of gruesome strong
points that are repulsive, while nerve
haunting. There are times when one sits
almost breathless, with every nerve
strained to the breaking point.
Then comes the relaxation with a sud
denneSs that leaves one gasping with
that sickening feeling when an elevator
takes a too sudden drop.
Not Gifted With Refinement.
THE City" is not a nice play. 1t can
not boast of the refinement of the TWEEN
tieth century. Its claims to being
great production must be based upon
its daring theme, its tense situations,
and the nerve-racking grip ii takes upon
the interest of its audiences. There are
several characters that make one shud-
der, and there is not a really pleasant
character in the cast. All of them are
painted with the morbid coloring that
makes the mind-picture of the whole
production take on the slate gray tone
of a rainy day.
1t is said that Clyde Fitch shortly be-
fore his death, declared that The City
was the finest play he had ever writes,
and that he had set out to write ii as
n Ai a
while a past master in picturing femi-
nine fOibleS, he could not write a
mans play" If he meant by this a
play that thrills while it shocks and
sends cold Chills coursing up and down
ones spine, he succeeded.
Thrills All in One Act.
Whether the playwright has succeeded
in writing a really great play or not is
a mooted question. There can be little
discussion as TO the powerful construc-
ton of the play, save that objection
might be raised to his having concen-
trated his thrills in the second act, leav-
ing the final one something of an aching
void.
But is it all worth while? Is any one
benefited by seeing it, or is any one
entertained in a wholesome, legitimate
sort of way? In the tensest moment of
play, the dope fiend uses a line that !
might not seRInd out of place in a |
brothel, but has no right to used by a |
dramatist. So powerful is the situation !
and so wrought up is' the audience that !
but few grasp the SaCrlcge. 1t is a dan |
Eerous precedent to allow the license to |
90 unchallenged, and the excuse that |
realism demands it, or that nothing else !
would be big enough, is to be ques-
toned.
Story of "The City"
THE City" tells the story of an ordi-
nary family who live in small town |
in New York-Middleburg. They are
big fish in a little pond. The two |
daughters and the son have been away
at school, and have acquired the long |
ing so common among the young in the !
country for the substance, or husks, of |
the city. Their mother, plain and more |
than middls-aged, also desires new So |
cial fields to conquer.
The father. George Rand, banker and |
big man of affairs in his town, alone !
resists all appeals. But his argument
that it is better to be Tt in Middle |
burg than Nit in New York fails to |
convince. His daughters reply is, who |
wants TO smell new mown hay in Mid |
,dlebuTg, when one can smell gasolene In !
New York"
1t develops that the respected banker |
is something of a hypocrite; that his |
business methods would not stand scru- |
tiny, and that in the past he has had |
an unlicensed love affair in his youth.
The son porn OIL lnlS union Is a IIlOT-
phfne fend, with shattered nerves. who
subsists on blaCkmail from the banker,
though he does not know him as his
father Driven to the wall, the father
tells his legitimate son of his miSdeeds,
and in the telling is stricken and dies.
In the City.
Next we see the family in the city.
The son, George Rand, jr., has risen by
great leaps, and has the nomination for
governor within his grasp. The NOR
phine fiend, Hammock, who has been
cared for by his half-brother, still not
knowing his hold upon his benefactor,
threatens to expose all he does know If
he does not get his.
Rand has followed in the footsteps of
his father, and almost without realizing
1t has followed crooked paths in pur-
suit of success, and has become an ego
ist, seeing nothing but his ambitions in
his inordinate Selfshness. The drug
fend'S demands arouse the suspicious of |
the political committee, who insist upon /
his discharge as confidential secretary
to the coming governor.
This is about to happen when the
younger sister announces that she has
married Hammock. Horror-stricken |
Rand tries to tell her it is impos- |
sible, and failing TO convince them, tells
Hammock that they are brother and
sister. The drug wreck declares this a |
trick, and the brother threatens to tell
the sister. Then the climax comes. |
Maddened by fear of loosirg her the
drug fiend kills her ana a,f attempts 10
Thwarted in this he grOvels and pleads
with his half brother to let him END
his life and the scandal with II. anu
finally exposes him to the girl he knows.
Weakened to what ne FGady t;a Is; Soad a pusl- ISL
Io,rnceS ali his SprasenE ambitions, and