New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-25
THE CHARACTERS
By Ralph Block

I
never fully win except by death. He
is a fedgling, beating his way up vain
ly through the cold heights to the
stars, forever Swallowed by the earth
he would leave behind. The torches Of
reason burn with shining splendor
in the black night Of human life, but
they do not beckon to him. He may
rise to them or fall just without the
circle o. their light. but they burn on
in eternal immobility. BY his own will
alone can he win to their pure and
lonely spaces.
All this is in "The Torches" which,
chiefly through the efforts Of Mr.. Lest
err Lonergan, was presented last night
at the Bijou Theatre with Mr.. Loner-
gan in the leading role. "The Torches"
or Les Flsmbeaux," as 1t Is called so
much more wildly in French, is a
drama OF the future. play which hints
powerfully at mans awakening from
the long sleep of the ages; drama
which portrsys with fine art the new
battle Of intelligence against the
senses, Of individual rationalism ar
rayed against the long enforcement
of the herds instincts.
French art of the last quarter century,
what ought TO be called its culture II the
phrase had not lately taken on so many
other weird connotations, has not been
able to escape the blight of disillusion-
ment Of a scientific and mechanical age.
Anatole France best typifes the France
of the period prior to 1914, gentle and
artful cynic, but none the less cynic
| French drama Of the most representa-
tive kind confined itself TO an investi-
cation of life, often lightly embroid.
cred with sentiment, a presentation OF
its vanities, its passions and its con-
/ tradictons, but II was drama that
| took no responsibility for what it gave
! to view. To whatever your protest the
French dramatist replied in a passion
less tone, These are the facts" and
shrugged his shoulders. Preoccupied
as the French mind is with sex-or is it
only greater honesty in confessing it :?
the facts have been almost entirely
Ct one kind, and in this type of drama
Bataille has taken definite place. Not
only as a dramatist, but also as a poet,
he has written copiously of the sex
duel; but il is only with LES Flam-
beaux" that he rises above what with so
much repetition becomes uninspiring
and commonplace into the rarefed at
mosphere Of the idea.
lies Flambeaux" is the story of a
man who thought he was beyond good
and evil" and suddenly in mid-career
came face to face with human nature.
The story is unfolded swiftly in the
first act. Professor Laurent Bouquet,
of the Claude Bernard Institute, is a
kind of Curie, an earnest man far on
the trail of an important discovery. In
his search he has been aided not mere
ly by his associate, DR.. Paul Blondel,
good-natured giant, probably from
Provence, but as much by his wife, a
woman of fine sensibilities and devo-
tion to an abstract cause. But there is
one discord in this. Bouquets assist
ant is a young woman rescued by him
some years previous from the mis-
chance Of an affair with an officer, and
the scene which the play first discloses
is Nine. Bouquet demanded the young
woman be sent away or welded. She
doubts her husbands fidelity and sees
this as the only way out.
The young woman herself appears
and the dialogue discloses that in a
moment of forgetfulness on his part
some time before she did give herself
to Bouquet, but that while she has
loved him ever since his feeling for
her is merely one Of kindly affection
She is finally persuaded to marry Blon-
del, whose admiration for her has not
been concealed, but the marriage takes
place only after Bouquet sounds the
lover as to whether her illicit rela-
tions, of which only the first are dis
Il
The second act shows Bouquet as the
young woman, tired of her bargain,
madly imploring him for one more
meeting. He yields, although it appears
it is only to quiet her, and in a scene
that is not so fortunate in its skill as
some other parts of the drama is dis
covered coming from the house. The
action rises at once to a crescendo in
which Blondel destroys the pages of
ten years of the scholars labor and
promises to drag him through all the
mire of publicity. II is the first purely
theatric moment Of the play, and like
all big "second acts" it is tremendously
effective. But the third act is much
finer, gaining its hold over its audi
ence by repression rather than sound
and fury.
The two men have fought duel and
Bouquet is brought on the stage from
the field. He poses the problem TO
a poet who has come to see him. He
is a man for whom the stars have
famed. lie thought that he could rid
his life of the dragging hands of brute
instinct. But that was impossible,
and now, because of it, because of all
the consequences of so short an hour
in his life. everything is gone. As be-
tween living in world that for him
has been rent asunder or dying and
by his death giving continuance to
his great work, which is the right :?
Of these two there can be only one
to follow, is the poets reply. So
Bouquet, hiding that he can by his
own movements make his wound NOR
tai, pledges his wife and Blondel to
continue his work. and dies.
lies Flambeaux" is a drama of in
teriors-the interior of mental action.
1t asks il there is any way of evading
the sheer fact of humanity. II it
makes any answer at all, it is that
humanity always carries its own penal
ty with it, and the only way out is by
self-sacrifce. So far as workman ship
is concerned, it has the rare gift of
giving life and vitality to a cerebral
drama. The dialogue is, moreover, dis
tinguished in many places.
The acting is capable. although Mr..
Lonergan as Bouquet does not touch
the spirit so assuredly as Amy Ri
card, who is Nine. Bouquet. She is
dignified and generous and has shin
ing spirit-all that the part could de-
mand. John Sainpolis scored heavily
in the climax to the second act in his
part as the injured husband. Sara
Biala has all the gestures of passion
and despair; as the unfortunate young
woman of the piece. but somehow fails