New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-03-20
Brilliant Acting of Miss Stew
ems the Feature of
Fugitive"
By HAYWOOD BROUN


The Fugitive" is drafty drama. 1t
IS swept along b. the breeze through
the open door which Nora left behind
her. Torvald pays and pays and pays. We
wish somebody would write a play in
which the husband suddenly discovers
that he has been living all these years
with strange woman and goes out
into the night TO spread his wings and
live his life.
Though "The Fugitive" is chiefly
concerned with what happens TO the
wife after she makes her dash for
freedom, il can claim little originality
of plot. Worse, it has little novelty
in treatment. Galsworthy az his best
has achieved interest on the stage BY
studiously avoiding the theatrical. lie
has called the curtain down without
building tableau or marking the di
vision with an intrusive line. AZ they
say in the prize ring, he has carefully
pulled his punches.
"The Fugitive" seems to be an ex-
pertinent in orthodoxy. Unfortunate
~, Galsworthy has many masters in
the merely theatrical. His tricks are
rot good tricks any moro. The device
Of mparting information b. setting
two servants to talk about the family
affairs at the beginning of the play
never was good. and it has rot improved
simply because everybody else has dis
carded such a clumsy strategem. Every
other third act along Broadway used 20
end with the scene j.. which the hus-
band entered the inhospitable bedroom,
and il no longer serves to give point 70
Mr.. Galsworthy's artificial first act cur
tain.
Yet after We have said that in our
opinion "The Fugitive" lacks both fresh
observation and theatrical facility II
must be added that in many respects
the new play AT the Tnirty-ninth Street
Theatre is we'll worth seeing. l. must
be unhesitatingly recommended to
those who admire acting apart from
the play, or even in spite Of l.. Miss
Emily Stevens gives dazzling per
Torrance in the chief role Of The
Fugitive" She is the ideal impersona-
tor of the part in every scene but one,
and in that VIC are not sure that the
playwright does not ask the impossible.
No American actress crowds so much
detail into a Characterization. Some
times there ia just suggestion OF
TANNED impressions. but we would md
it hard 10 forbid single grimace, shrug
or nervous finger twitch OF this elo-
quent actress Her best scene is the
one in the second act. where she con-
fronts the lawyer and resists his APP
peals that She chose the lesser of two
evils Here the sense OF courage RS
ING above panic was finely rendered.
Less successful was tho third act
scene. in which Clare returns TO tell
Malise that she loves him. This may
be due to the fact that Miss stevens
il unable to convey sufficiently the
warmth stifcd up some place or other
in the woman. but it is more likely that
Galsworthy has written this love scene
ineptlv. The logic Of falling in love
with people may be somewhat obscure,
but the playwright does no. help ac-
ceptance By making the passion sud
denly we'll up in his heroine IN some
mysterious of-stage manner between
acts two and three
The last scene again was sp!endidiy
played by Miss Stevens. Again there
we're numberless suggestions OF the
panic which is Selling upon the woman
who knows that her light Tor freedom
is "A losing one. The scene was
marred bit by the omission OF the
KEYNOTE speech OF the play. You see,
explains Glare TO her male companion,
"Im too fine and not fine enough;
Nv best friend said that Too fine and
not fine enough. ! couldn't DE SAINT
and martyr. and | wouldn't he soul
loss doll. Neither one thing nor the
other-that's the tragedy
The speech was not spoken .ast
night. Possibly it was Intentionally
cut. or it may have been lost IN con-
fusing the preceding cue. which ends
in "pluck," with the one which 1o1-
lows and ends in duck However
his in the play. and We don't propose
20 he cheated out of the use OF TINS
partjcular passage. which we marHed
with crosses ard dashes and things
when We read the play. long time
Clare Dedmond leaves her husband
after the first act. mere Ho'"'""
definitely the matter It's Just neon
patibility. unless one chooses TO take
Clare's explanation. that he couldh
look at the Westminster CLOCK rover
without noticing time rather thah
baautv. A. any rate. she goes to
Walise. a Young radical writer. for ad-
vice. The producer hangs picture or
Lord Tennyson above the fireplace OF
lIalise. and more than once we caught
Tho poet of propriety frownlnS down
al The goings on of the lodger
Clare does not think she loves Malise,
and so she merely comes TO say good
bv in the second act. She does not
STAY. even though her husband and ms