Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-08-17
NEMESIS ON WESTERN FRONT
By Simeon Strunsky

TN NEARLY all Of the old textbooks on
i the art of the theatre as call it now.
you will tipd sharp distinction drawn be-
tween the underlying idea of modern drama
and the drama of the Greeks. When / say
the old textbooks mean those written before
1908, approximately. Since that time the
whole subject has been revolutonzed by
English forty-sevcn at Harvard and the au-
thor of Seven Keys to Baldpate.' Text
books today concern themselves largely with
such fundamentals of dramatic technique as
U) the relative advantages of n connection
with Klaw & Erlanger or with the Shuberts;
(2) the of the telephone In the develop
ment of climax; (3) the relative advantages
of lighting the stage from underneath, from
above or from the side; (4) tmelness OF
subject, such as the war, sugar conservation
women ticket choppers and the like; CD the
relative merits of character development ana
the punch" with George NJ. Conan laying
stress on character, and English forty-seven
at Harvard emphasizing the punch.
DUT I was speaking of the distinction
d drawn by the older textbook writer's be-
tween modern drama and Greek drama; and
the distinction is this: at all times the
essence of drama has been struggle; but
whereas in the modern theatre struggle takes
the form Of a clash of opposing human wills.
among the ancients 1t was a struggle or
human beings against the gods or fate or
Nemesis. This is a very rough way OF put
III
ject covered with precision and thorough
ness in the publications of the Drama League.
For the moment, however, It may serve to
think of Nemesis as the ironic gods leaning
down from the azure battlements win
smile watching humanity's chickens come
home to roost watching human beings
caught in traps of their own devising,
astrangle In loops Of their own knotting ana
in general being hoist with their own petard.
Punishment that Is peculiarly appropriate,
that has the come back" that turns the
laugh on the defendant at the bar. is OBJ
viousy dramatic; 1t Is Nemesis.
T1OR lust a month the world has been Sit
II ting on the edge of its chair. swinging
from thrills to chills and back again. and Its
| ewes on the mighty spectacle unfolding Itself
In the great proscenium arch between the UP
| of the Marne salient and the tip of the Mont
didier salient. IT Is drama on scale the
| world has never seen and OF an intensity u
has not witnessed since the French ReVolu-
tion drama in the passionate Interest or
| the theme; drama In the clash or VIII be-
tween 100000 armed men on either side
and scores of millions on either side beh,nd
| the battle line drama In the interests at
stake: drama. above all things. IN the
/ t,ngling unexpectedness OF the denouement
we witnessed during short twenty-four
| hours after 4:3o a. m. on July lS. when the
| hunted quarry became the hunter the nap
| less victim became the stern and just execu-
| TONER Well. Mr.. Cohan never
| pulled a laugh out of tear so handiiy' ana
Rayard Veiller never flashed pair of auto
| matics with quite such complete erect as
| the trick Foch put over In those wonderfu
| twenty-four hours.
| Hands up Jack Dalton Ludendorfr! Make
| YOUR peace with your Gott"'
| Assuredly, the generaiissimo was there
| with the wallop. Ask the military critics
who at once began buying seats ten weeks
| ahead for the march across the Rh'ne ano
| into Berlin.
| II has been drama but which kind, the
| modern or the ancient? What we have beer
| experiencing these last four weeks-has j
| been a mere physical and psychic Teaetion te
| clash and suspense and surpriseT Or arr
there those who have been touched win
| sense of something like awe at forces highel
| than human, of outraged, indignant, ye
| mocking gods crying Finis to their sport WIN
| the impious transgressor and delivering mn
| IN his fate? Has the history OF the last fou
| weeks on the Marne and the Somme peeI
| sjmply dramatic or has It been Nemesis?
A HINT of superstition there. perhaps; bu
| u imagine 1t is in such intense moment
that, the lasting superstitions of humanit!
| are born. It would have been intense drama
| In our modern sense, IL the German armies
had been smitten down at the apex of thei
pride by any man along any fifty miles
the western front 1t would have been draml
at Ypres or before Arras or IN the Cham
pagne or Lorraine. But when German hope
at their high tide In 1918 are crushed Of
the ~ ne River Marne which witnessed tn
Selhpas Of German hopes IN 1914; whsn y