Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-11-12
RISEN PLAY IS
SHOWN At MET
Mime. Borgny Hammer And
Her Company Present
"a Dolls House"
tHy Geo. a. Benson,

"A Dolls Mouse" perhaps. the best
known Of all Ihsen plays to American
3theatregoers, was presented at the
metropolitan theatre last night by
Mime. Borghy Hammer and her COM
pany. They appear here under the
auspfcea Of the Dakota Piaymakers.
This afternoon. they will play "Hedda
sGabler," once acted by Mrs. Ffske,
and tonight 'Thc Master Builder"
1t Is useless TO enter into q phil
oaophiczl or critical discussion OF "a
Dolls House." for they've been doing
1t 90 long In parlors and tea-rooms
and In these cquire-playwrighting-
comfortable enthusiasm n a few text
books in our universities and colleges.
They've been doing it for years, now,
and have arrived nowhere except to
agree that the play is technically per-
feet. They've wondered and still
wonder what 1.-THE miracle Of
miracles is, and every unhappy wife
has imagined herself a Nora, only
mostGo them have lacked the cour-
age to 30 out and hide in the swirl of
humanity till the age of miracles re-
turns.
AS is the a $ with SO many 1bsen
plays, "a Dolls House" consists
largely of a passionate analysis Of the
past. And this is what makes an
Ibsen play Sc hard for the present.
day American audience. They appre-
ciate technique and fine speeches just
as much as the audiences Of yester-
year or the audiences of foreign coun-
tries, but these long, wordy scenes, in
which the family skeletons are
ratified, sometimes are hard to sit
through. for you American theatre
goer likes a little snap and a little ac-
ton. He's a little faster than the
foreigner, anyway, and he'd much
rather see a. play about Nora out in
the wide, wide world away from her
doll house" and her idiotic husband,
The complete Ibsenites will chide us
for such a remark, no doubt, but even
they must admit that Nora was a
SILLY goose and Helmer-well, an
American would use two words in de-
scribing him, and M begins with "d''
and the other ends with 81"
The reviewer is not speaking dis
paragingly of Ibsen. Far from it, for
he long has been a student and an ad-
mirer Of the "Sick man of the North
that with the exception OF two or
three plays, Ibsen is for the library
and the class room and not for the
American stage. All students ofNthe
drama should study his technique.
They should study "a Dolls House. ~
Tor instance. for its exposition scene
is one of the most perfect in all
drama, although it is too long.
OF course, the acting makes a diff
ference. 1t made a difference in the
cas- Of Nazimova's productions and
Mrs. Fisike's few flights in Ibsen. And,
much as he regrets it. the reviewer
cannot speak very complimentary OF
the acting las night There is moth
ing moro pleasant than heaping en-
comiums upon dramatic artists. and
there is N more unpleasant task than
reviewing a play when one cannot
praise the acting.
Nine Hammer, Of course, carries
away the honors. She is the back
bone OF the company. She makes an
acceptable Nora, but she Is % prone
to over-act- That probably is due to
the fact that she learned her art in
the old school Of acting. when it was
the fashion 'to tear a passion to tat,
ters." She shows flashes of the non.
chaiance and naturalness that so with
the pfesent-day art Of living the char.
acter naturally and humanity, but sf<
failed to show them in the last bis