El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1918-02-01
THE FLAME 4
PECULIAR PLAY
Weird and Sad, Also Laugh
able; a Sermon Against
the Pacifist.

Weird almost beyond Imagination,
unusual in the number of themes
treated, beautiful in the picturesque
ness and elaborateness of its scenery
and stage effects, "The Flame was
greeted by a full house Thursday
night for its opening performance of
the four scheduled for Ell Paso.
1t is funny at times, fearful at
others and as weird at others as
Faust or Hamlet" and through the
whole there runs the theme of pa
triotism, while it breaches a sermon
against the peace at any price"
statesmen and the demagog political
diplomat 1t is also a satire on Next
can poHtcS-toO true to be enjoyable
to a border citizen-and there is a
plea, almost the main theme, for the
unborn infant and the moral might
be said to be pointed in the latter
subject for the curtain falls upon a
young couple bereft of everything in
the world but love for one another
and the knowledge that parenthood
viii soon be their fortune, walking
out into the world with faces radiant
over the new found love, greater than
anything they have ever before ex-
perienced.
The locale Of the play. while given
as somewhere in a land bordering on
the Gulf Of Mexico" might as well
be placed in Mexico. for the Mexican
revolutions Of the past few years and
the wanton manner in which American
political diplomats abandoned their
nationals to the mercies Of brown
brutes and bandits, for plumber, "a
pine and murder is held aloft to reck- !
less ridicule
There is a Texan who is prospect- !
ing for oil, young American from |
the east trying to make his fortune /
IN bananas, his wife and her mother, a l
CRAFTY, black hearted young revolu- |
zionist who has been educated in the 1
states, a grating, crooked old mill |
tary despot who rules until over
thrown, a goodly old priest. an Ameri-
can consul OF the I-knew-him-in-
Nebraska type, a British nobleman. a
native VOC doc woman. and THE
daughter Of the EARTH" who are the
teacher and a nun.
II IS genuinely American and as
such Is interesting; il is more weird |
than Omar The Tentmaker," another
Or the same authors works The /
scenery IN the first act, representing
an old courtyard overlooking the |
Spanish Main. with an old church tow
aring above the rest Of the@buildings.
s one Of the best pieces Of stagecraft
you have ever seen and you may have
seen the best The mechanical eff
'ects for the jungle storm concluding
he second act comprise another mas
-erly piece Of stagecraft. All the set
lngs are elaborate and pretentious:
ne characters are in good hands. the
Mexican costumes appropriate and
more correct than most stage Presen-
atoms OF things from that country. |
It IS a play that will make your
Hood boil once again over the indig-
lities il viii recall that our govern !
nent permitted TO be heaped upon !
,ur countrymen by the Mexican ban +;
Its during the past seven years of
'trme IN that country and there are
lassageS that viii make a Texan want |
o shout ''whoop-e-er"
Gov Charles whitman OF New
York, is quoted as having written the !
uthor, Richard Walton Tully, that he
relieves The Flame has helped
argely to arouse the people of the
United States to a realization of the
name OF peace at any price," If /,
nyDody can witness The Flame and |
e pacifist in the future, he de- :
erves the firing squad which Of
iciates for the Americans in the play. I
It should not be overlooked that +
here is considerable incidental uau-
&c, some OF it weird and some Of #
ather tuneful and. besides those in
Deaking parts. there are some mighty :
God looking girls who do some dane !
lg in the cave OF the child Of the q
arth who are not half bad to look /
pom.
On the whole. the play is worth see +
lg- You'll certainly say it is unique 4
nd has merit and that the parts are
good hands and that the scenic ar 8
st and the stage hands and the cleo (
'ical expert are as clever a lot as S
on have ever known. G. A NJ \