New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-09-01
BY HAYWOOD BROUN.

! dence intrudes in Jules Eckcrt Good
mans play the author seizes it and
/ shakes hands. 1t was one Of Shaw's
characters who said, "If you have a
vice you can't overcome make a virtue
of it." Mr.. Goodman has done that
/ in Gust Outside the Door" which was
/ produced at the Gaiety Theatre on
Monday night
Needing condolences for his plot, the
author invents a character to justify
them; no, more than that, to extol CO.
| medicines as natural and wholly ad-
mirable factors in every life. After
hearing Bishop Henry Stronger. elo-
quently and plausibly express the be-
1 lief that romance is always just out
side the door, one is not altogether
startled to hear its knock a few mo-
ments later. For our part, we were
not prepared to hug Mr.. Goodman's
condolences, even though introduced,
yet we could hardly cut them dead. As
acquaintance federation was forced
I upon US.
The author has not chosen to place
| his play in any classification, and II we
! may catalogue it, the piece shall be
called an intellectual melodrama. This
/ differs ever so much from the old
fashioned melodrama. In the first place,
/ Mr.. Goodman has written much true
and spirited talk His characters are
real, ard, most important of all. al
! though the author has been lenient
. al L. Z. IL, 9 ~,
other respects he has burdened himself
with the most difficult of conditions.
He asks no space for his story. All
three acts OF "Just Outside the Door"
are laid in an old fashioned library.
Nor does Goodman require any favors
I from time. There are no years or
months or weeks in the play. The ac-
tion takes place in single evening
and is continuous. Curtains merely
cut the talk which goes on from that
point at the beginning of the next act.
If there were no thirsts there might be
no curtains or act divisions in the
play.
The interest of the spectator is
maintained throughout. and there are
some exceedingly tense moments.
Thus. if one is willing TO admit that
romance is just outside the door and
that condolences are the things VIII ID
govern all the important happen n6
of life one must grant that Mr.. Good
man has done a remarkable piece OF
work in a most difficult technical form.
The play would be no melodrama then,
hut a most stanch and sturdy drama.
We, for one, cannot bring ourselves to
accept the authors condolences with
out incredulity. and in our opinion the
IL oil &c
but only melodrama.
II is excellent entertainment, and so
splendidly is the play acted that one is
almost tempted at times to accept the
impossible. The plot forbids full be-
lief. 1t is old and no more true now
than when Shakespeare wrote Measure
for Measure"
The play begins in the library of DR..
Wheaton, d scientist. who has sclen-
tific son and a scientific daughter. 1t
was she probably to whom her aunt
referred in saying: "The girls Of to-
day are not born, but hop, Minerva
like, out of the head of Bernard Shaw
To this scientific family Bishop
Henry Stronger states his belief that
facts are nothing after all, and that the
world is largely governed by series
of condolences.
Romance, says tnt Dlsnops 10 JuSb
! outside the door" But the Bishop is
wrong, after all. Romance is just out
| side the window, and in it comes.
Madge Davis brings romance, for she
| is fleeing from detectives. kathlene
! Macdonnel was Madge, and she made
{ splendid business of the portrayal.
/ Nadge encounters Gloria, the sclen-
/ tifc daughter, and tells her that she
wants and desc. 'e5 protection. she
! relates her story:
hidden by man Of wealth and posi-
/ ton. she went to his house, only TO
4 find that he was about 70 have her
1 brother arrested for stealing from his
bank. Madge pleaded with the wealthy
man alone. and he made the sugges-
I tior 70 her that she give her ell TO MIN
! in exchange for her brothers freedom
/ Thereupon she stabbed the man with
naper knife and fed. Her brother es-
capped at the same time.
That is the story of Madge, but she
neglects to tell Gloria that the man
she stabbed was Mr.. Burleigh: nance
/ Of Gloria, and that she herself IS the
/ Sarcee Of Gloria's brother, Kenneth.
Complicatons in plenty are caused
as these two facts gradually become
/ known TO the various members OF the
household and further complications
come when Madge's fugitive brother
Ned enters the house and steals: Madge
taxes the blame for the theft upon
herself but she is cleared in time Tor
a banpy curtain after Burleigh has
been forced to all but confess the ms
chief he had planned toward the girl
Miss Macdonell took first honors
lin her intense, passionate ana ier-
vent Interpretation Of the heroine, be-
cause even in her tensest moments she
lever lost her sense of values. She was
real at all times. But in such a cast
everv one had TO fight for favor. LlzZie
Hudson Collier was admirable as Polly
Wheaton. the aunt in the scientists
household. 800. .r,.
inst little in the scene where she n,
Ives her necklace TO Madge never Will.
Il was acting Of the deftest sort. Frank
Lee was an admirable bishop. and
Ernest Truck did well with the thank
less part of Madge's brother. Eliiott
nevter was a manly Kenneth
II YOU believe that romance Is yust
o,tside the door you probably VIII
Jsel that Mr. Goodman has written .
Great play. II you don't believe tnst
I, Is as like as not you VIII ENJOY
The show anyhow.
-, pN,CACENENT