New-York tribune., 1918-04-29

Brilliant One-Act Play Called
The Rope, Province
town eature
By Haywood Broun


nearly an experimental organization
than any we know. In their little the
atHc they have kept the cost of pro
duction so low that they can afford to
put on bad plays as we'll as good ones.
This is a highly desiroble condition. 1t
is difficult to get good plays-verv good
ones. at any without having bad
ones, too. A play is an uncompromis-
ing work of art. 1t CANDLES for the
spectators entire attention and en-
thusiasm at the risk OF making him
tired and angry. You who have studied
something which eXplodes with loud
report and a bad odor in case Of fail
ure, and turns pink or liZzes or blazcs
brightly in case Of success.
Provincetown PLAYS are like that. 1t
is true that two of the plays on the
present bill are rather more neutral.
They neither bring down the house nor
blow it up. The third experiment. how
ever. is a glorious success. In THE
Rope Eugene O'Neill tells an enthral-
ling story in a highly proficient way.
We are rot going to tell t;le story here
since it is impossible in a'paragraph to
indicate the careful DEVELOPMENT Of the
idea. Moreover, this Is surprise play
and it would not be fair to any reader
who may 60 to the Provincetown Play
ers this week to let him in on the
secret now Unlike the majority of
plays which fool the audience for 4
time. "The Rope" plays fair. If it were
acted backward nobody could say "Ah'
there the author went out Of his way
TO deceive me-"
AS in other plays, such as Bound
East for Cardiff" "In the Zone" and
even in the Indifferent He" O'NeilI
shows great ease and fluency IN setting
down the language of the roustabout
world If Il playwright has need OF
"skunk" or "bastard" or such like it is
we'll for him to be able to distribute
his words without sllrper or swagger.
I O 'Neill's male characters swear with
out betraying any effort or, the part Of
THE Rope" is real enough to create a
perfect illusion And it is all we'll
in the hand Of purpose.
The fact that the end of the play
will probably prove a surprise to many
does not mean that the author has
been at pains to play q trick. The end
is in keeping with the rest and the
new turn merely serves to drive the
ironic thrust in little more deeply.
The Rope" is finely imaginative
story, handled with excellent technique.
1t is acted we'll enough throughout,
and Charles Ellis as Luke Bentley Is
distinctly good
Susan Glaspell is another author who
has brilliant dramatic achievements to
her credit A play by the author OF
"Trihes"' and Suppressed Desires and
THE People" is certain to command
attention. "Womans Honor is an eX7
cellent idea for one-act farce, but 1t
suffers because the author has over
elaborated her original scheme and also
because as d matter or TACT she Is not
half so much Interested in her story as
she is in using it as means OF discus
sion. Farce is an almost impossible
medium for discussion, which is hard
enough in any form of drama. The
story begins fast and then slows up
again. only to finish with startling sud
denness. Audiences, we think. demand,
unconsc ciously, a more or less set pace
for plays. 1t is easier to watch them
if you have some notion as to the ap-
proximate time at which they Will pass
a given point.
The play concerns young man who
is being tried for murder on circum-
stantial evidence He is not guilty,
but a strong case has been built up
against him. He refuses to establish an
alibi because by SO doing he will COM
promise a woman's honor. The law
yer for the defence seeks to get around
tho romantic obstinacy of his client
by giving out TO the newspapers the
fact that the young man intends to
die to save Woman's honor. lhen
things begin to happen. One after an
other, women appear at the house OF
the lawyer eager to give an aflirma-
tive TO his question. "Wil you tes-
tify that on the night of the 23d
you were with Gordon Wallace con-
tinuously from midnight until a.
IN. 2" One OF the women is prompted
to appear because she is motherly
person and hates to see a nice young
man get killed. Another is a sentl-
mental chit, who says that love is a
beautiful thing and that she can't bear
to think that a man is gong to give
up his life for it. Still a third is a
scornful one, who says that 1T gets
her goat" to hear anybody talk about
woman's honor.
Eventually, two more speaking char
acters appear who are ready to estab-
ish an alibi for the young man. We
omit sixth because she turns out to
be very much puzzled applicant for
a job as stenographer. The five women
who are intent upon saving the young
man sit and discuss from their various
viewpoints what woman's honor is and
how much it is worth. Much of this
talk is good, but after all it is handi-
capped by the fact that the audience
has been taken part way in the devel-
opment of an interesting story. The
talk is not good enough nor are the
various kinds of thought sufficiently
different to keep some auditors
from reaching "a-go-on-young-ma -man-get-
hung" attitude. Then, too, the fact
that five women appear to save the
prisoner is not two and half times
as funny as If only two volunteered.
In fact it is rather less amusing. Most
good ideas become less amusing in pro-
portion to the amount of elaboration.
When sixth volunteer appears the
prisoner settles the whole matter by
deciding that he'll plead guilty.
The Hermit and His Messiah" is an
interesting but not altogether convinc-
ing little play about wounded Russian
who induces an Austrian hermit to
sacrifice his life for him by making
him believe that he is the Redeemer
come again. Irony can be laid on too
thick, just as much as sentiment or
anything else, and this seems to us to
be the case in the play Of F. B. Kugel
mans. Then, too, the rather good idea
suffer from insufficient elaboration or