The Washington herald., 1915-01-19
BY JULIA CHANDLER MANI

BY JULIA CHANDLER MANI.
The most brilliant audience of the cur
rent dramatic season taxed the capacity
of the Belasco Theater last evening in
honor of David Belasco's premiere of
Edward knoblauch's new play, Marie
| Odile.' the title role of which was Gre
ated by Miss Frances Starr
From every standpoint the production
proved big dramatic event marking, as
Mr.. Belasco expressed it in his curtain
speech, the return of the prodigal" to
! the One-time home of his first productions,
presenting Miss Starr in a role which is
the exact antithesis of those which she
! has essayed during the past five or six
years. and proving Mr.. Knoblauch some
| thing more than dreamer of dreams.
| Marie Odile'' takes its title from the
name given the heroine, who. when
| the story opens, is a novice in a small
! convent in the mountainous regions of
! AlsaCe, beyond the walls of which she
! has never been since she was left
| friendless, forsaken baby on the con-
vent doorstep sixteen years before Her
young life has been so untouched
| by the world that she is COM
pletely ignorant of every phase of life
save that of spiritual grace. which has
| been cultivated to the exclusion of all
\ else by the devout sisters who are re-
sponsible for the girls up-bringing
The time is 1870 during the Franco
Prussian war. The three scenes OF the
three acts of the play are in the con-
vent chapel where the early morning
finds Marie Odile industriously attend
ing her homely duties of sweeping and
dusting and scrubbing. Here the au-
Stere Mother Superior reprimands her
severely for a feck of dust left on a
chair. and when. still later. the girl is
guilty of dropping bread crumbs upon
the floor the sacrifice of her pet pigeon
is demanded in punishment for her
misdemeanor-the little brown fellow
which of all her beloved brood. Marie
Odile loves best.
While she fingers in the pigeon loft
conquering her rebellion Father Fisher
the aged chaplain, brings news of the
swift approach of the Prussian soldiers
and the sisters. after a vain effort to find
the little novice. flee for their safety,
leaving her defenseless and alone.
Marie-Odile has seen no man save
Father Fisher and a still more fOsilized
specimen in the person of Peter, the nalf-
witted gardener. and already her mind
has pondered their wrinkles and white
hairs and she has asked her dear sister
Louise II there are no young men in
the "OElu "lleU. IN answer 10 IoI HutS-
| ton, the sol1ie-s come upon her. and
the second act of the piece Is devoted to
their crude and boisterous behavior with
! in the sacred chapel of the nuns. Marie
| Odiles Gentleness. purity and holiness
save her from their familiarity, but when
| thEy have gone Corporal Phillip Metssner
| is given permission by his superior OFF,
! Ger TO remain. and here, n ClOistered
walls great and beautiful love is born.
In the third a has tranSDiTe0
"a year in which many wonderful things
have come into the life of Marie-Odile,
for she has kept house alone; keeping
the convent in order in the absence of
the sisters saying the prayers at the
stipulated hours: and building of her
strength the new life which tells the
story of her love for the corporal
TO the returning sisters of whom
there is but one who sees into the
soul of Marie-Od that ii has not
sinned; but one who knows that the
childs ignorance of any desecration of
her chastity leaves her motherhood
pure and sacred thing-and that one is
the sister Louise, who has always under
stood the fiower-like nature of the little
novice
To the Mother Superior the situation
means scandal, and she places the repu-
tation of her stainless convent so far
above a human life that she sends the
young mother out through the convent
gates; out into the world OF which the
girl knows nothing; out where Marie
Odile declares that the God who has
brought to her the miracle of love and
motherhood can let no harm befan her
a declaration of which the audience feels
not quite so sure when little purse of
money is the only weapon given the girl
with which to make life blessed thing
for her baby and herself. and one cannot
~. 1
lover does not come back to keep his
promise before the final curtain, al
though the conclusion evidently meant
by the author is that somewhere beyond
her cIoistered walls Marie-Odile finds him.
and that all is well with the world which
her gentleness and goodness touches
with a magic wand.
The, central character of Mr.
KnobIauch's new play is a remarkable
creation for it's simplicity. its poetic
beauty. and great spirituality. and in
Miss STAIRS hands il becomes a sort of
sanctuary. to which one feels that one
might fee for peace. She is an
exalted little figure even in her
scene at table with the soldiers,
when she bows every head by
her toast, in answer to their demand, |
which invokes the blessing of God upon
them and asks their speedy return to
their mothers. Her wonderful faith Is a |
sort of radiance which keeps leaping |
at the audience over the footlights, bring |
ing an ache to the throat and a tear TO /,
the eye when remembering how far ShoTs |
of her conception of it mankind falls.
And her tendernessl There could be |
nothing more exquisite than Marie /
Odile's hour of grooming lullaby over her |
baby. stepped as she is only in the con-
sciousness Of the holiness of love and
the sacredness of her new estate Mr.. |
Belasco told the audience at the Belasco
Theater last night that he is proud Of
Miss Starr. And well he may be, for
she has touched remarkably beauti-