The Washington herald., 1918-11-18
PoIi's-IRoads of Destiny

~
under such conditions as prevailed
last night at Poli's-conditions for
which no human agency was respon-
slble, unless 1t be the United States
Railroad Administrations the most
tickllsh task that has presented it.
self to this reviewer in many a long
day.
Here is a new plsy-"Roads of Des-
tiny" written by Charming Pollock
on the framework of one of o.
Henry's most celebrated stories-and
1t is a play of which much is expect
ed unquestionably by all parties con-
cerned, including one A. H. Woods,
who is not given to placing anything
before the theatrical public which has
not passed the acid test Of his busi-
ness judgment.
And this new play-based. as we
have stated. upon one Of the tales into
which o. Henry poured his Quaint
est and deepest insight into human
anairs-was heroically thrust before
ihe footlights an hour and a half
after the conventional hour, with
double force of scene shifters work
ing ike beavers to save the audience
from complete disappointment. That
play and players were able TO score
in such a situation is, in our judg-
ment, the highest praise that could
be bestowed upon them
Roads of Destiny is a study In
fataiism, as We conceive it, A study
in fatality and in the futility of the
mere human when he struggles
against predestination. In a swiftly
moving story where the theme dom
mates and controls the action. where
the eerie poetry Of it all conquers
I ho -
In a play in which the voice OF des-
tiny. or fate. has to be ushered IN
with a bugle call and several bars
of music, AMI ib which the TEct -
series of episodes is necessarily OBJ
jective and hence melodramatic. the
result is a shrewd bit of dramaturgy
which excels in some respects and
falls short in others.
"Milestones" and MY Lady's
Dress" have proven the practicability
of the episodic play-tsat is. a play
not devoted to the consecutive and
cumulative development of a single
story. The task which Claiming Pol
lock has .essayed in Roads of Des-
! tiny is the most difficult that could
be imagined. That task is not merely
the hazard and elusive technic OF
the episode drama 1t is the con-
version into elements of popular ap-
peal of a play the keynote Of which
Is: Il don't want love over the dead
body of one whom / love" In four
episodes we find two men and two
women caught in the web of Fate
and striving to disentsngle them
selves in accordance with conven-
tional human law and custom. The
sad bungle they make of il is the
burden of the tale. And North, East
South and West we find Fate lean
ing heavily upon the long arm of
coincidence and over-partial TO gum
play and melodramatic rawness.
Whatever the admirers of O. Henry
will think of this dramatization, there
is no doubt whatsoever of what the
admirers of Miss Florence Reed will
think of 1t. On the strength of her
achievement in this play, Miss Reed
may safely be called our leading pro-
team exponent of emotionalism She
plays in succession a Carmen Of a
Klondike dance hall, a New York So
ciety beauty, a passionate senorita of
Chihuahua and crossroads ingenue
of Nebraska. THE coloners lady and
Julia o'Grady are sisters under the
skin" Love and fate push geography
of the map. Wherever David Marsh
goes he cannot get away from that
which is written in the Domesday
Book. And whatever Misc Reed plavs.
she plays essentially the same SEN
suous, flaming, passionate woman
who first caused David to study the
four points of the compass
At this late hour ii is impossible to
do justice to players or production.
Roads of Destiny" will emerge from
its week at Polls an even more in
teresting and vital play than il is
at present; that much is certain.