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"

waiting wifc-a wife waiting late in the
night for the husband to return-who, loving,
| deludes herself into believing her husbands s
excuses and untruths and caring for the
home and child, is stnted by meagre all
lowance makes over old dresses and bears
negligence patiently. wife tortured with sus-
picons narrowed with jealousy, still devoted
and meek and silent. A pathetic fgure-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 hive like
city apartment house
1t has remained for Edward Locke to present
this pteous human drama in such a popular
way as to express and bring home the injus-
tice Of the double standard of morals in the
marriage relation in "The Revolt" which
opened at the Adelphi last night One might
say it 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 it's allie
CORY convncinSly. 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
tained by self-righteous, self-justifying men,
The Revolt is clean and salutary 1t is an
American play, dealing with familiar domestic
conditions. 1t is effective a play on its
theme as was the antiseptic, much-expIoited
drama of BrieuX on another
Anna stephens, the wife, has waited for her
husband night after night for seven years
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.
in he
emancipated women To them he gives his
money. A 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 infdety by her
scheming 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-
dongs 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 preclpItate
flight after midnight in the morning from the
dingy nat in Brooklyn to the swell" apart
ment OF Flora La Rose, formerly Lima Schmidt
her old school chum. on Riverside drive, raises
-
excused by the claim OF dramatic exigencies
Most women would wait till morning and, IL
they loved their child as prodigiously as Anna
asserted would take their child with them.
In striking contrast to the mean home of the I
decent wife, the second act haunts the allure /
and horror-of the luxurious home of the aban-
doned woman. Beth Franklyn, as La Rose, is /
true 10 life-we just almost hate 10 .
make her acquaintance in public. \ night or
rather very early morning. revel takes place,
and Anna stephens, radiantly clothed in a
Parisian gown OF rose satin and spangled sill
ver is wooed by an intoxicated admirer. She
drinks champagne, sings smokes cigarettes,
1nally breaks down and weeps There is a
struggle, for the indomitable honesty and purity
of Annals nature recon from the abyss At
The crucial hour Anna is rescued by one of the
anonymous visitors, and is about to fee when
4 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