The Washington herald., 1921-12-12
BY EARLE DORSEY.

Despite the disastrous public re-
action against Eugene O'Neill's Be-
yond the Horizon" in Washington a
year ago. the Provincetown Play
ers evidently believed that public
taste for the drama improves. for
last night the Players brought to
the Garrick another O'Neill fan
tasy, The Emperor Jones'" pre-
coded by a travesty on psycho-an-
alysis by Susan Glaspell and George
Cram Cook called Suppressed De-
sires"
It is impossible to deny the SUI
perb harsh force of o'Neill's EN-
peror Jones'" which has been called
a study of psychology of fear. 1t
is also impossible to deny, how
ever, that its manner of presenta-
tion Is easily one of the harshest
and most eXacting ordeals that one
can readily find in the theater.
To begin with The Emperor
Jones" is presented in eight scenes,
with but a single intermission af-
ter the first episode. 1t is pre-
scented, furthermore. in a fashion
that affords hardly a moment of
relief from the unceasing drive OF
its tension and its tragedy. The
complished. additionally, through
the constant reiteration of a tom
tim beat that pounds steadily for
over an hour without a moments
cessation.
By comparison with Beyond the
Horizon" the current O'Neill play
suffers somewhat. 1t has a cur
ious, exotic flavor that seems occa-
sionally, to be striving at a gra-
tituous presentation of a really in
consequent and exotic theme.
something as far removed, say. as
psychological phenomena among
the Msrtians. 1t gets its effects.
of course, with unfailing force
though 1t attsins them more by
mechanical means than the sheer
clash of mental forces which so
conspicuousiy characterized Be
yond the Horizon"
The story has to do with a former
negro Pullman porter who escapes
from the penitentiary. makes his
way to an island in the West In
dies, sets himself up as emperor and
then overplays his hand by falling
TO anticipate soon enough the up
rising against him. The first act
is decidedly more legitirta'e
drama than the. succeeding inter-
walls. which depict his night through
a West Indian jungle and the curl
Gus fantasms and morbid present
ments that intense fear present TO
his mind.
This latter portion OF the play
becomes theatrical rather than dra-
matte. Despite the powerful inter-
probation given the role of the
negro Er pc or b: Charles S. Gill
pin, the climatic episodes of the
play make not half the appeal to
the reason that they make to the
emotions Much Of the terror COM
municated to the spectator is COM
municated by settings and electrical
effects. rather than by the, realism
Of the negro's plight. In short, ii
is not unlike the business of telling
ghost stories in the dark, vastly
aided and abetted by a tom-tom
throb that is tremendously effective
in shredding out ones nerves.
OF rather decided satiric concep-
ton but of quite Indifferent histri-
onic treatment is the Glaspell-Cook
travesty. Suppressed Desires"
which opens the performance. 1t
presents the spectacle Of a young
wife pursued by a psycho-analysis
enthusiasm until life becomes such
burden for her husband that he
has himself "psyched" to please her.
The result is discovery that his
suppressed desire is to escape mat
rimony-a discovery which further
shocks the young wife when she
learns that her sister, then visit
ing her, has a suppressed desire for
the husband. In the ensuing mat
rimonial stormclOuds the wife's
belief in analysis goes the way OF
most theory and the wedding bells
ring happily in the plain old-fash-
toned way