New-York tribune., 1913-11-14

Z I.ettie .....................B Blanche Lawrence
Molly trace Ellston
Mary Gafdher
Irene Darlington .SeIthe Johnson
Wilson ........... Gertrude lie Brant
I ce,er ............... .Geofirey G. stein
Joseph. :'falS Miner
tollIn Ford ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. STANLEY DARK
Bob harrington. .Thurlow Bergen
An unusual thing happened at the Lyric
last night From the moment the curtain
rose on Miss Rachel Crothers's Our
selves" until IL fell on the fourth act the
crowded house sat spelbound. except
when il broke into tumultuous applause
There was no sagging or let-up. TIE
searching last act only held and deepen,d
the climax of the third.
The usual amable fripperies Of first
night were forgotten. and there were mo-
ments when what the people on the stage
did or said seemed so important and real
that the crowd quite forgot the playing
for its own sake and were almost as In
clined to hiss or applaud the behavior and
expressed opinions Of the stage figures as
supposedly more ingenious audiences ap-
plaud or hiss the characters Of melo-
drama.
The cause of this phenomenon was that
the play came home to those listening as
few plays do, hit them. as the saying
goes. where they live. IL is well named
ourselves" Compared TO IT the other
sex plays" OF the year seem foreign and
remote. The Lure" genuine as IT was
in many ways. was but the repofc Of
policeman.
Ourselves" is the work of a woman
a woman of sophisticated intelligence and
fine feeling. who brings to the passionate
revolt felt by most American women OF
her class against a double standard of
morality for men and wonderland par
ticularly for husbands and wives-all the
power of expression generally supposed
to belong to men 1t is one Of the most
important plays produced In New York
in years.
An altruistic young woman takes girl
OF the streets out OF a house OF refuge
into her own beautiful uptown home.
The reform home" itself with it's in
mates, is put on the stage with all the
terse vlvidness with which IT might be
described by "A good police reporter and
all the deeper understanding which would
be supplied from the experience of Miss
Maude Miner or a Jane Addams
Without sentimentality. but with the
most poignant sympathy and intuition
Miss Crothers makes clear the pathetic
ignorance OF most OF the girls. their COM
plete lack Of realization Of what they
have done. the unutterably drab and
meaningless life they started with, and
their poor, passionate yearning and crop
ing for happiness. A stupid immigrant
girl explains In her lunk- headed. ingenu-
Gus way. how she got where she was-de-
ceived by almost the first man she met
when she arrived. alone. In this coun-
try Another makes IL clear why a girl
Of the streets will even stick to the man
who drives her there and takes her
money. because he at least IL man and
hers-"somebddy to come home to-
II is this latter girl who has possi-
bilties far above the rest. whom the
young woman takes 20 her home. She Is
10 STAY there month and see what an
other. life is like. and then she may, il
she still insists. go back TO her man.
The girl responds 10 good treatment: is so
touched and made over that when, at
claim her and refuses contemptuously TO
set up decent home with her and let
her live straight she is able to resist
his pleadings and bullying and send him
away for good.
At the moment this one prop is taken
away. and she is left stranded In all this
new and chilling respectabllity, there
enters the brother OF her patron. a good
looking, carefree young man. lie looks
at her moment, and suddenly. without
warning. takes Ter In his arms. kisses
her. and a moment later goes out whist
ling. He is already happily married. but
has his own ideas OF what a man may
do, provided that IT doesn't mean any
thing TO him-is not personal to him
self To the girl he is beautiful being
from a new world. She gives herself ut
terly and presently, In a third act OF
extraordinary power, the truth comes
out. The man. his sister, his wife and
the girl meet It together, and IL is on
her, at frst that the blame falls. And
the curtain goes down on her protest and
her hystercal demand to her sex, whose
leniency to men permits them to bring
about such tragedies unthinkngly, "Why
do YOU stand for Il? Why do you stand
for it?'
After a climax, with which the author
seems TO have said all that she could say
dramatically, there follows an act OF
equal tension. I'm which the theme Is de-
veloped still further and the wife dis
misses her husband forever The girl
goes out alone TO stand on her own feet
and fight her battle alone.
The play throughout Is the statement
of a conviction. but is the passionate and
dramatic statement Of 1t, worked out and
EXPRESSED i'm action, and not for an in
stant descending to mere ethical decla-
nation. The whole presentation was ex-
ceIIent but the work Of the others was
oyershadowed necessarily by the splen-
did performance of Miss Grace Elllston
! az the girl. Miss Selene Johnson as the
wife. Miss Jobyna Rowland as the Sis
ter and Thurlow Bergen as the hus-
| band all acquitted themselves capably'
and a comparatively unknown young
actress. Louise Coleman, did an excellent
mir of character work as the Immigrant