The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-04-21

mind when he turned 70 plaNWrit-
ing. lie had served as a school
master, actor, physician, telegraph
employee, civil servant. painter,
preacher. private tutor and state
librarian. all for the purpose Of nc
cumulating first.hand knowledge as
proper preparation for Literary
work: but The experience that
glares out with the greatest glow
in his hest known plays are the
unsought ones of two unhappy
marriages and a third venture that
nearly wrecked his health and san
ity.
For Strindberg certainly gives II
TO the girls with an unrelentlng We
hemence that makes NietZsche s
comments on the female sex sound
like f1attery of the most excessive
and gallant sort. Although he
wrote 'The Father twenty-five
wears ago and it was hailed then
and has rcmained-his masterpiece,
il had never been acted i'll this
country until this week: indeed, ex-
cept for semi amateur perform
ances and. possibly. some reprcsen-
tations in German. none Of Strln.
berg S dramas had been played
here They have, however, long
been familiar to the more thought
full reading public; so. when war
ner GLAND, an accomplished Nor
wegian actor who. speaking admir-.
able English. has done very good
work in 'Thc Master Builder
and "a Doll s House, with ALA
Nazimova and as Peer Gyut-an-
nounced season of Strlndberg
PLAYS an intellectual public was
i.A
than half way.
But with all respect to n great
work. simply must begin and eud
my necessarily brief description of
it bv quoting two laughably uu-
fortunate lines that occur In the
dialogue, for we II find nothing to
smile at in between. As much
through nervousness, resulting nat
urally from contemplation of three
tense and narrowing acts. as be
cause of the inherent humor of the
remarks. the first audience giggled
openly at them. though they came
at tragic moments. As for that.
though. ANYTHING happening in
"The Father had to come at
tragic moment, for such were the
only moments (or hoursO in the
play. It was acted on the stage
of the little. semi~amateur theater
which bore up under the weird
earlier Ibsen performance in Amer
lea and has not collapsed beneath
many a bewilderipg and gruesome
burden since: so what could We do
but litter when a character moaned
dolefulIy: "This house was built
on an unlucky spot. -
D Ut let us put all merriment
D behind us and get down to
the frigbtful business that con-
fronts us. Imagine living through
three acts with a wife who makes
Hedda Gabler seem as gentle as
cooling dove, only to be swept quite
Of our feet by final spectacle of
disease that is no less horrible and
haunting than Oswald Alving S
eibberings for the moonl Laura
is quite the coldest and the Keen
est mother ever seen. ller loVe
for her daughter is of about the
sort one might expect in a mother
snake. And Rosalind Ivan, similar
in both manner and appearance 10
Nazimova as Hedda Gabler, skill
movement a sort of shiny coil and
to venomously spit her bitterer
words as though her teeth and
tongue were fangs. Laura's hus-
band. namelessly described as a
CAPTAIN of Cavalry, is as wrapped
I'D in their only daughter as she Is,
but In far more normal way On
almost every point pertaining TO
the spiritual and material training
of the girl. who is about IA, the
parents disagree. But daring to
take any side but Laura's proves
to be a ticklish business. If any
suffra gette exists who is as deter
mined to have her way as Mrs.
Laura, and is as heartless In the
matter of her means thereto, let
her have the vote by all means.
Finding her husband adamant,
standing on his paternal rights as
the court Of final Judgment, Laura
asks him how he can be sure he is
Bertha S father, anyway! DIS
cussiou as to the inability OF any
man TO be positive on such ques-
tion eusues. But this wife's scheme
goes much deeper, BY the suotlest
inuendoes and by watching MN
suspiciously, she implants the idea
IN N1c llllnu thdN I'"s'P H'H
run TO totter. Having succeeded
so far. she then suggests 10 his
physician, to his pastor and TO ms
old nurse that he should be
watched. Finally his actions beglr
| TO appear irrational; goaded into
fury by his wife. he f'ings lamE
at her, only to see it smash against
closed door where he had be
| Iieved he saw her standing; and
later. conceiving the idea Of shoot
ing his daughter, rather than le,'
her mother and maternal grand
mother get complete control Of her
he is bewildered by n blank report
THROUGH all this. many peo
Il pie in the nervous audenc
Uttered; but the last scene of tn
drama grippcd everyone, Perhap
no play since "Ghosts had com
to such CHASTITY and untorget
table conclusion. Having cou
vinced the tender hearted. woman
~ Old nurse that it was no long