The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1912-12-22
Women Are Foremost Absorbing
Study for Dramatist of To-day
Alfred Sutro, Great Eng
iish Playwright, Says
Evolution of the Sex
Presents a Problem to
Delight In.

DGtLSnL III.
a compact, fair man with shining
head quite negligent of hair, an upper lip
which possesses its adequate quantity
and sharp face of highly intellectual
cast-such as Alfred Sutro, the English
dramatist, and who is considered to be
OF that champion caliber in the dramatic
class for which so many sigh. to which
few attain. In England he ranks with
Pinero and Henry Arthur Jones; but as
he stood framed by his sitting room at
the Knickerbocker Hotel with its en-
vironment of white and gilt and sum-
mary, covered chairs, and a distant bed
room perspective of a tousled bed Dit was
$50 in the morning., he merely impressed
one as being a brisk and business-like
and smiling man, which Is a much more
practicable condition than that of mere
greatness. His latest comedy, The Per-
picked Husband" with John Drew in the
stellar role, comes TO the New National
this week
Something about the adaptability of
the modern woman as a subject for the
modern stage?' said Mr.. Sutro in mas
terry condensation of my first question.
Keeping Up with Women.
The modern dramatIst is struggling to
keep up to the modern woman, who is as
much a problem to him as she perhaps
Is to her husband" he answered. Be
cause of the character of the woman has
so tremendously changed and the process
Of readjustment is difficult-an around"
Mr.. SUtrO who had been striding up and
down the white-and-gilt reception room,
after the fashion of some amiable PAN
Their with IN inclusive gesture with his
hands which took n husband dramatiSt
everything.
For in the old-fashioned ideal she was
simply a mute, inglOrious bearer Of
dishes and children, a sentimentally sub
missive figure whose sum of existence
was rounded by the condition of the bed
linen and the number of buttons on her
husbands shirts. Life for her was sem
timent diversified by an orderly kitchen.
She was subject 10 certain immutable
rules
1t was her law for instance. to accept
age when il came. She was a secluded
being, who was inundated upon the altar
for ner family.
And that tremendous change through
which she has passed makes her infinite
~ the most interesting problem with
which the dramatist has to deal She has
passed through one of the most inter
esting revolutions the world has ever
seen-a revolution quite as interesting as
that of France and possibly even
more far-reaching in its consequences.
Think
Mr.. Sutro ceased his character of ami
ably perambulating panther. lit his pipe,
and seemed to emphasize his dramatic
pause by his first few preparatory puffs. !
Think" he repeated, that for the first
time in all the ages woman is finding |
her own individuality. For the first time |
she is becoming a separate factor in |
civilized life, with separate ideals OF her |
own. And in this respect she is illus
trating her tremendous potential imPOr-
lance to society.
Nor" Cultured Than Man. /
Has it ever impressed you that the |
averaged cultured woman is more cul- !
tured than the average cultured man? |
That is why with new intellectual hori- |
ION before her she presents dramatically |
SO fascinating a problem and so subtle |
one. No dramatist has succeeded in pre- |
senting the modern woman as she is |
OF as she thinks herself to be-
No man can quite realize her position: |
for the male mind considers her, even to-
day. particularly on sex matters. as il |
has viewed her through the ages. The |
man demands. as I read i'm a woman's |
article recently that she shall seek even |
her souls salvation decorously' and he
believes that it is a shame that she |
should depart from her immemoriaI planes
Of correct behavior for any cause on this
earth.
He has not even yet thoroughly
grasped the fact that the woman Of to-
day is practically new race; and one
as different from the mid-Victorian or
der of woman as the yellow races are
from the white. He has not grasped the
fact that conditions of life are hostile
10 the lines she has selected.
But the dramatist recognizes that;
that that is where the problem comes
in, and feels professionally delighted in
recognizing, too, that a most vital part of
the problem is marriage. To what eX-
tent will marriage have to be modified
to suit the advanced woman? Eh?"
Mr.. Sutro suddenly stopped in his rest
less perambulations and cooked an in
terrOgatory head al me from the middle
of the room. He talks with a rather
deep, incisive voice, and with a sequence
of ideas refreshing TO the interviewer
who. too often, is reduced 10 mental eX-
ercises not dissimilar to those physical
ones in vogue over the bodies of the
almost drowned.
so you see" continued Mr.. Su0o.
finding that wasn't going to spoil things
by answering his question and refusing
to be obvious by answering it himself;
so you see the modern woman has COM
pletely altered herself for stage pur-
poses, and, 50, very materially, has al
tered the position of the ancient hero
inc, who is only possible in melodrama
to-day. which itself shows a diminishing
vitality.
''One cannot even conceive a modern
Desdemona. She has been pushed out by
the new race Of heroines which have
sprung up in her place-heroines who are
directly reflective Of the modern woman
attitude.
And will this change in the mental
structure of the woman mean a change !
in her viewpoint upon sex matters? VIII
she attain the generally masculine point
Of view in this as in the other things?' | {
Embracing Freer Liberty.
Mr.. Sutro precipitated one of his lib
erativs pauses.
As between man and woman" re-
piled he at length, woman is the finer
animal of the two-and she will always !
remain the finer animal In sex matters
she possesses a delicately selective pow
aT, which is the crown of her sex. and !.
one which is more highly rarined than !
that of mar. At the commencement of :
course, it is possible that the greater /
liberty springing from her new con- a
iition may degenerate into license; at {
he beginning it may be possible that
,he will adopt for herself the masculine c
tolerance of an unlovely liberty which z
or centuries man has adopted for him {
;elf But the ethereal mind Of woman, 7