New Britain herald., 1916-04-01
MARIE OD|LE, PLAY
 OUT OF ORDINARY
Frances Starr Seen at Parsons Theater in Sensation Of Season

When men and women of the world sit spell-bound after the cur tain falls on the last act of a play or tho. stage there must be surely something wonderful about such a play Usually it is the other way around. The moment before the cur tain starts to descend there is a grand rustling of women's finery and men searching for their hats. Not so at Parsons theater in Hartford last night when the sensational play Marie Odile came to an end. The curtain went down to the very stage floor and not q man or woman moved in their chairs. They were rivited m their places. Call it what you will, say it is not drama; this play that Frances Starr is seen in is a play out Of. 'fhe ordinary. There is not so much action in8it, probably no action at all when compared with present day drama. buta5there is ssoqethiuk. more. There, is the power to .elea lk: human thoughts. Staged witA ae 1T cunning and art { of David O. this play fairly hreatM atmosB sss sssss' It's story is simple. It may hes sacriligious, %for it exposes thef dkytstd life of the. convent .1ps. th1sEele eh tlfEs,i, gaze of worldly th4f4tef g6ef4 SGck J and a rebellious speech by a " 1 the last act, must be it's croWnt& Is
 Marie Odile is {play that L. xFhv s innocence as few believe mf 4hch' possible. It is a balancing o14toit- trasts, striking of two extEpHIles; the quietness of the convent aand- the bravado of the soldier on the battlefield, clash of the sexes, the male and the female. The play is in three acts all depicting the same scene, a small convent in the noun tainous regions of Alsace at the time of the Franco -Prussian war of 17SO. The scene might as we'll have been laid during the present day. Marie Odile is a novice in the convent. Sne has been there since babyhood, since she was found on the front door steps of the place, an abandoned in fant. She was taken in and. con- trary to the rule of the convent. al- lowed to serve a noViciate for. the sisterhood. During all her life sine has seen none of the world. The only men she has known are Peter, the aged and decrepid gardener, and old Father Fisher, the chaplain to
 
 St Michael in the convent, a picture of the saint in armor, with flaming sword in hand, and Marie Odle imagines that young men must look like this. So, when the Prussians come and take possession of tho convent, she imagines the stalwart officer who makes his appearance first as St. Michael He is the first young man she has ever seen. The other sisters have fed and Mario Odile is left alone with this young soldier who falls in love with hcr. Poor little Marie Odile. Her faith is so simple, her innocence so won~ derful it is fascinating. She never understands, she never knows. Even when she is put out of the convent with her baby on the return of the superior at the close of the war. Marie Odile wonders why she must go from under the roof wherein she has spent her entire life. One Won- ders if the ending of Marie Odi'e could not have been made more dramatic by the return of the officer, her first and only love. But he never comes back.
 Frances Starr has given to the stage a wonderful portrait in her
  David Be1asco has added to his famc as a master of stage craft. Instead of seeing a play on the boards one really breathes the atmosphere Of the convent. There is no orchestra music to interrupt the proceedings. The acts follow one another in rapid succession, the convent bells are so real that the audience is taken at once out of the land of every day existence and transported to the realm of another sphere. While the play is almost a monologue for Miss Starr, Marie Wainright, as the strict mother superior of the convent. Robert Wynne as the Uhlan. aud Harry Halliday as Peter the garden have opportunities to display their histrionic ability. There are some wonderful situations, but never cause for applause. The whole thing is ;l sermon It will be seen again thls afternoon and night.