New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-08-15
TIE CAST
otWay
By Ralph Block

An idea is precious thing, even in
the theatre. And it is an idea that
wanders dizzily through "Daybreak,"
played for the first time last night at
the Harris Theatre, leaps intrepidly
across the thin pinnacles Of smart dia-
logue, crosses the swamps and marshes
Of the problem play and bursts through
the barriers of straight melodrama at
the end of four curtains wearied and
beaten about ky the Fates of the thea
ire, but still recognizable-an idsa.
"Daybreak" might have been q real
drama, II by drama may be understood
a play dealing with some sincerity
with human passions. 1t isn't. Not, it
may be believed, because the joint au-
thors were not quite earnestly on the
trail of the human motif, but probably
because they weren't quite up to
catching 1t and making II their own,
| and took the easiest way out. And the
easiest way, in this instance, happens
to be melodrama. The pity of 1t is
that the idea itself is such good one:
Mother love has been attacked from all
sides on the stage, but II must be con.
coded novel and quite Of the temper OF
the times TO present the drama OF
mother who so fears the beastliness
| of the father Of her child that she
keeps the child hidden and Its very ex-
istence a secret. In the play IT Is sup
posed 20 remain secret until long
| after 10 o'clock, but 1t was fairly in
telligent audience last night. and,
despite the several attempts to blind
| the trail, probably every one guessed
somewhere after 9:25 o'clock.
The real difficulty with "Daybreak"
| Is that il is terribly messy. IL has
everything else in its favor, an intel,
| ligent cast, and enough material to MI
up two or three more plays Of the same
| stripe. IL starts out with silent
prologue, in which Arthur Prone
catches his wife, Edith, coming home
at S o'clock in the morning, sees her
steal guilty into her room and picks
up her handbag on the landing. He
| doesn't really catch her; merely sees
her. For II he caught her in the real
| sense Of the word and faced her with
| il there wouldn't be any play: Fron
| that point the problem slowly develops
through perplexing three acts, IN
| which the audience has TO change lts
point of view so many times as TO
force the conclusion that the authors
themselves had the same difficulty ana
were not sure at any moment Just wnat
| they ought to do next. Arthur frome
is a drunkard He suspects his wire
of intrigue, no. because she is that
! kind of a woman, but largely because
suspicion il the habit of befuddied
mind. He hires detectives to follow
her, and out of the all too many mazes
of the play the audience manages 10
follow the thread Of the plot, to Won
der whether IL is the family physician
or the Mexican diplomat who is guilty,
and finally concludes some moments
before the actors do that the child
disclosed in Act belongs to Arthur
Frome himself. AS for the husband,
ne refuses 10 believe and is shot
cruelty and somewhat unnecessarily
before the final curtain by the husband
of his betrayed stenographer..
All this is accomplished here and
there with some ingenuity. 1t is, In
fact, so complex that there is always
the danger of getting lost In the
machinery itself, there is so much OF
it. The mystery Of the wife's hidden
life does not hold the stage alone as
q,
with the affairs of the husband. There
is, as well, the cynical adventuring OF
a Divorce, who spends fifteen minutes
OF precious second act in clever con-
versation about men and marriage.
| Shades of DR.. lbsen, who preached
economy in dialogue! Margaret Dale
| might almost have stepped moment
from "Disrseli" to do it, and did II,
| indeed, quite as we'll. Whether smart
society Is quite so smart as the au-
thors would have Miss Dale and Regi-
maid Mason make it out to be is open
! to question.
Blanche Yurka Is Edith Frome, and
where some subtlety in the quiet mo-
ments would not have been unaccept-
able. she was not Disappointing when
: it came to the climaxes. Frederick
I Truesdell has a difficult job TO do in
Arthur Frome, and didn't quite do 1t.
growing perhaps too much at moments
/ here and there. 1t is William B. Mack
who emerged as a vengeful husband
/ last night, and gave the most sustained
| illusion Of reality of any moments OF
the entire evening.