The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-11-23
Nance O'Neil
The Passion Flower
The Principal Characters.

A futile attempt was made eener-
alton ago to populariZe in this coun-
try the dramatic achievements OF
Spanish playwrights, the most not
able of the efforts in that line being
the production of Marta of the Low
lands" a somber piece designed
more for chamber reading than action
upon the stage. Other plays from
Spanish pens followed in regularly
timed order yet the theatergoing
public showed lack Of appreciation
and the campaign was abandoned.
Now the attempt to interest US in the
Castilian people and their ways has
been revived, the vehicle being de-
piction of rural human life and
spiritual emotion as exhibited under
stress of family and neighborhood en-
tanglements raised to the highest de-
gree of emotion induced by the
secret love of "a stepfather FOR the
daughter Of his wife. In this play,
1.-The Passion Flower" a translation
of Jacinto Benavente's LA Malque-
rida,'' Miss Nance O'Neil was intro
duced to a Keokuk audience at the
Grand theater last night and sus-
tanned her well-won reputation as an
emotionalist-
beQdVSHCe Is d III dIldtISI 81 duotCiC
and fateful that his drama lies
heavily upon the audience, master
! of dramatic Dortraiture, one who can
set before us elemental human pas
sions of love and hate SO stripped OF
pretense that they smash their way
| into the consciousness with the over
(; whelming force of thunderbolt. His
play stands the test of translation
remarkably we'll, and the translator,
John Garrett .Underhill, has done
fine piece Of work Not a single
word is superfuous; every word OF
every sentence tells. The play is SO
built up with atmosphere that there
can be no happy ending.
'"The Passion Flower is a
story of Spanish life in Cas-
tile, where blood runs hot and super
stition is Indigenous to the sun baked
soil The tragedy moves with GER
tainty towards it's inevitable end, and
the shadow of it's terror IS over all
the protagonists. 1t is stark, vivid
with all the intensity OF Spanish SIN
light lying on Castilian hills. burning
in it's vetlemence, and irresistible in
the foodtides of the passions 1t
arouses. One begins to understand
why the Spaniard has not changed in
1 a century or more. In such land
! where unrestrained emotions have
their fullest play, where romance and
i tragedy go ever hand in hand, where
men and women shake off the veneer
of conventional restraint with the
, swiftness of a bullets flight. passion
must needs sink deep.
| Miss O'Neil has a role that puts a
lheavy strain upon her genius and re
sources. She portrays the mother
Raimunda, whose soul is wracked
. and narrowed by such a swift play
of conflicting emotions and contend
ing passions. that up to theEvery last
moments one sees her torn between
love and hate. - jealousy and desire
between devotion and black, soaring
passion. Such triumph of emotional
revelation is rare indeed on the
. mimic stage of today Her gestures
, are fewss but wonderfully expressive
, Her facial expression conveys what
+ she desires to emphasize in flashes OF
, quick revelation and she compels heI
, body to talk, in tenseness and polse
, tShe is an ideal actor for the lnterpre
I tation OF great tragic role such as
r is Raimuda.
! The company supporting the stal
II seems to have been chosen by one
who knows how to differentiate be
Y tween reputation and ability. Fewer
/ better Balanced casts have appeared
8 before ~Keolcuk audiences. The set
8 tiugs were admirable, but '"The Pas
r sion Flower" depends on none O.
s these. 1t is alive, flaming and domin