Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-09-26
IBSEN PEERS THROUGH
"THE HOUSE OF GLASS"
Some More or Less Grabbed
Reflections on a Popular
Melodrama


THE HOUSE OF GLASS. a mslosrsms II four
Harris Garrick. Thsatsr.
:rss: 'sESsH' Ss:S iislwards Mrs, ISSTS ed'a
Mrs. Brandt, boarding house keeper
yras.ss t,Tss RsSs.sr Frs5S 'sm n Tseg|ss Sogss:
CARROLL a qeteetlys. Th9s Eindley
srG~IIsiy, GSsIisyerna. nj, "'u'e"'' Mcclure
Ts.sSS Ts.,sS' Lsks su'l'r railroad fspresspstys
Edward Mcclellan. attorney for \, y, ana
,,s.on oA,wSSoa wS T. NApspcicr i'@i.@ wsisss.
G "a. JS SF' IL e:fs sS OF Ss'NfS Ns% TSE 'oo
a s .S S9g s.sr: q SSs s:r York sSsI:'s s.S AsS's 4
fsn.as city. Ast iii.Two years later Lakes
hSTe lsssr = Same msw as 'GVa act fifYY
on the whole. It's lucky that American
playwrlghts never guide their dramaturglc
souis upward by asking. What would Ib-
,en have done IN my placer" Because they
wouldn't be able TO do Il anyhow. Take
..rhe House OF Glass" for instance, the
NEAREST thing TO an Ibsenic crook drama
that we have produced yet.
Max Marcin's new play has 'situa-
zion" In every act. Act one: Crook-hero
and innocent heroine arrested for theft
an the very eve OF their departure for the
West, where the hero is to marry the heroine
and ''go straight" all without letting her
know a word OF His past, Act two; Inno-
cent heroine eight years later, having
Jumped her probation and married a rail-
road wizard sees crook-hero. who warns
her not to return to New York; then she
hears that her husband is about to crown
his career by "wiszlng." as Frank Daniels
used to say In Kew York. Act three: De-
tectlve who made original arrest OF crook
hero and innocent heroine and Is now on
trail Of upper class boy-thief, whom rail-
road wizard insists on prosecuting In
face of pressure. happens to innocent
heroine; recognition and yelled threat; wiz
ard-husband feels he must give up his
wife to law. Act four: Husband changes
his mind and with lawyers aid gets wife
of by agreeing to let or upper class boy
thief.
Now quite obviously Mr.. Ibsen wouldn't
have worried about losing few of those
punches" He would just have showed
most OF this tale way behind him and
opened UP on the third act. II is not un-
likely that he could have found some more
skillful way of handing us the last ten
years than the don't make me go over all
that again. I've told YOU" stun, which
Mr.. Marcin has TO use to tell us about the
happenings of the week before the first
would have built up real flesh and blood
people and problems and wrung our hearts
with them.
Now Mr. MARGIN, II is safe to say, could
not do this He might, of course, have
taken the Ibsen starting point and manu-
factured melodrama OF impending dan
gers and hairbreadth escapes. just as he
has actually taken the melodramatic form
and given It the treatment of serious drama.
But the fact that these people in their big
moments OF pain lack any real and original
existence to make us suffer terribly with
them argues that Mr. Marcin would just
naturally be nowhere at all IL he didn't
have us sitting up on the edge OF our
chairs waiting for discoveries and arrests.
No. I have no business quarreling with
Mr.. MARGIN for not being an Ibsen instead
of q popular playwright. But maybe have
. right to object ,if the fact that he tried
20 get away from the ordinary crook drama
handling betrayed him into a vein where
he could not accomplish for some of us the
thing that the melodramatist can do SO
easily. But. then. there are people and peo,
pie, and most of them thoroughly enjoyed
themselves at the Garrick, and most OF
them did the same thing all through last
season in New York
; The play was helped lot last night
by the physical production Handsome
solldity-nothing less than real rooms
ought to do O great deal for any drama
even when the "bsckings" outside the doors
are cheap and fat. and always, always
illuminated with a bright red light.
1t was helped more still by the acting
AT times the players slid into melodrama
Even Mr.. Frank NJ. Thomas's excellent
crook hero had to be over-heroic just once
and Thomas Findlays still more excellent
detective had to pull out the over-em-
phasis stop at the moment Of conformation
ia moment handled, by the way, with 8
skill that Ibsen might envy). Harry c
Browne and william Walcott gave highly
enjoyable impersonations of actors imper.
sonating business men; but Frederick
Burt made himself real figure Of finance
as well as a moving actor, and Joel Day wai
sure enough Governor OF New York, thu
nrst In many months. And there remain;
Mary Ryan. To many of us she is puz
xle. She arrests, but she doesn't always
econvince, half SO much as she puzzles. Al
any rate she isn't stage-handsome and she
doesn't "emote" In the ordinary leading
lady way. On the other hand, she plays
pretty consistently on one note. and hel
gestures, the tip of her head and her voc'
are often those of the Emma Dunn ole
lady type. To get back TO the credit side
she Is decidedly a woman OF individuality
and brain. But just how did all this lant
her In stardom? X. NJ