Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-09-22
SHALL A WIFE DARE
WHAT A HUSBAND DOES?
Problem of Mems Neglect and Decep-
ton of Wives Theme of"The Revolt. .
A PLAY That Gets Across

A waiting wifc-a wife waiting late in the
night for the husband to return-who, loving,
deudes herself into believing her husbands
excuses and untruths and caring for the
home and a child. is stnted by meagre al
lowance, makes over old dresses and bears
negligence patiently. wife tortured with sus-
picions, narrowed with jealousy, still devoted
and meek and silent. a pathetic fiEure-a too
common figure in life. Her counterpart is to
be found in the little frame dwellings of every
town, in the drab rookeries of every hve-like
city apartment house.
1t has remained for Edward Locke to present
this pteous human drama in such popular
way as to express and bring home the injus-
tice of the double standard of morals in the
marriage relation in 1.-THE Revolt" which
opened at the Adelphi last night One might
say 1t remained, through the vehicle of Mr..
Locke5s play, for Helen Ware intimately to pre-
sent the heart tragedy of too many wives.
The Revolt a play has excellent quail
tiles. 1t transplants complications and phases
OF actual life to the stage. 1t carries its alle-
CORY convncingly. 1t is play that must seri-
ously do good, While it throws before its
audience, in the second act, the meretricious
elegance and luxury OF vicious living, as main
tanned by sef-righteous, self-justifying men,
The Revolt is clean and sautary. 1t is an
American play dealing with familiar domestic
conditions. 1t is as effective play on its
theme as was the antiseptc, much exploited
drama of Brieux on another
Anna Stephens. the wife has waited for her
husband night after night for seven wears
There was only honeymoon year of happiness
John, the husband acted by Alphonz Either
spends his evenings as many husbands do, and
while he tells his wife he works at the office,
mingles in the company of a certain kind of
emancpated women To them he gives his
money. tribute must be paid to Miss Ware
as an actress. Unaffected by the tricks of the
stage, intellectual in her Interpretation. her
acting has the simplicity OF really great talent.
One is never conscious OF the actress YOU see
only the wife. Such portrayal is art
Assured of her husbands infdelity by her
schemng, villainous. whisky addicted step
mother, who urges her to the life which If il
costs men money, brings money to women
Anna confronts John with evidence of his mis-
doings in a letter received from a woman The
long pent-up passion of years bursts forth, and
Anna rushes forth to the life of freedom en-
joyed by the husband. While her precipitate
flight after midnight in the morning from the
dingy fiat in Brooklyn to the swell" apart-
ment of Flora La Rose, formerly Lima Schmidt,
her old school chum, Riverside drive raises
a uoupl as 10 It's plauSlDlltN, II Is SuppOSellv /
excused by the claim OF dramatic exigencfes
Most women would wait till morning and, IL
they loved their child as prodigiousIy as Anna .
asserted would take their child with them
In striking contrast TO the mean home Of the !
decent wife, the second act faunts the allure
and horror-of the luxurious home of the abaa-
doned woman. Beth Franklin, as La Rose, is
true TO life-we Just almost hate 10
make her acquaintance In public. A night or
rather very early morning. revel takes place.
and Anna Stephens, radiantly clothed in a
Partisan gown of satin and spangled sill
ver is wooed by an intoxicated admrer She
drinks champagne sings, smokes cigarettes.
1nally breaks down and weeps. There is a
struggle, for the lndomitable honesty and purity
% Annals nature recon from the abyss. At
The crucial hour Anna is rescued by one OF the
visitors, and is about TO fee when
l telephone message informs her OF the serious
illness of her child
Over the bed Of the child, believed to be dy-
ng, the husband, confronted with the folly OF