New-York tribune., 1921-02-01
= Diff rent Comes
To Broadw ay
A The Selwyn
Eagene Osrssiil's Isnraasnre
Study ef Sex Psychology
IL Presented lin First OF
Special Matinee Series
BY Heywood Rrour,


Foiks are all crazy and rotten 70
The cQre," cries one OF the cAief char
actersNin Eugene o'NeiIi.s sT.iff'rento
and rushes cut to hang himself. Being
Informed of his death few minutes
later, another character rushes out and
she hangs herself.
"Diff'rent" has at last reached Broad
wgy, where it was presented yesterday
afternoon at q special matinee at the
SelSyp Thcater. The play is re-9
telling of the theme Of "The Emperor
Jones'" less eloquent, less dramatic
and less truthful Once again, o,Neill
uses the sironic gesture of the circle.
Emma Crosby refuses to marry Cap
tain Caleb Williams because she learns
two days before her wedding that he
once fell from grace during d voyage
TO South Sea island. She Thought he
. WAS diff
Thirty years later. in the second and
Nsnal act of the play, we find her d
PAINTED and eager spinstsr, seeking by
every vile to win the affection Of d
oid-blooded young rascal who is in4
terested IN her only as a possible
means of raising money. 1t seems at,
tirst one of the cruelest acts ever writ
ten, but before the act is over reali-
sstion must come that o'Neill has not
struck deep enough to hurt so much
After all, he has taken little more than
the popular, old cQmice weekly notion
~ sex psychology as the basis Of his
play. His cruelty is callows 1t is inn
mature. He tears things apart ruth
lessly enough, but aimlessly, for he
dees not know very well che thing with
yskich he deals. He touches no nerve
O'Neill seems i'll informed Of the
more searching theories of sex psy-
ckology. He does not understand that
repressed instincts tend to burrow
deeper and deeper and without some
adequate explanation the sudden inn
pulse of the heroine to translate into
: actuality the desires whieh she has
long suppressed, or perhaps sublimat-
ed, is not convincing. Emma refused
Caleb because he fell shsrt Of her
ideal. No other man could have at
tracted her unless he in some way re-
created that ideal, and the youngster
upon whom she fastens her affections
In the last act is frankly scamp.
indeed. it can hardly be said that
o'Neill has hit upor a true case of
life emotionaily starved. Caleb re-
mains, after his dismissal, for thirty
years the sseadfast friend and con-
tinued suitor of Emma. Her state
seems quite characteristic of that type
Of woman in whom Che sex instinct is
sublimated by means of another form
of companionship.
After all, O'Neil1sbegins with a'young
woman whose sex impulses are not par.
ticuiarly compelling. They have become
rarefied into an idealism OF distinctly
anti-sexual nature, and it is little too
much, to expect that after thirty years
sucn instincts should blaze forth into
an unreasoning passion.
Still, O'Neill is handicapped by some
thing more than his lack of under
standing of the unconscious. He has
become a new sort of Puritan in the
theater Ideaiism, he seems to say
again and again, brings its own retri-
button. He is as set as Presbyterian
parson in his belief that man is marked
blythe curse of Adam and may not pre-
vail against the powers of evil, 1t is
more far reaching than that. O'Nein
even denies to this impotent creature
whom God has cursed the will or the
power SO much as to put up decent
I hight.
Z There is q tendency, Of course. to
applaud 0'Neiil on the ground that
here at last is q young man determined
TO make no compromise with the Broad
way tradition of happy ending, but
II ID HdEti2S WV&ta Wiiilc 10 NSttt Il STG-
dition by the mere process Of setting
MP just as stanch a one on the other
side of the street. In tc-night's mail
comes letter from a reader who com
plains because we wrote 1--WE believe
that a dramatist of calab is the one
that can write of the rise Of man as.
we'll as his fall.n "Do yeu consider
Ibsen a dramatist Of caliber?" he asks
and goes on to state that Ibsen in
variably wrote of "the fall Of man."
seemingly intent on excluding "a Dolls
House" Brand and "The Lady From
the Sea-"
Life is too complex to be reduced to
any formula or pattern as simple and
as pat AS that of 0'Neili, The most
inspiring thing about great dramatist
is his ability in nid-careef TO change
camps and proudly to march from
trench to trench with all his colors
fiying. The great artist belongs to no
army. He is with the men who fall
and also with those who triumph. He
is the defeat and the victory.
An exceedingly sinteresting long play
By George Cram Cook, called s'The
Spring," was produced by the Prov
Jncetown Players last night. IL will
be reviewed in The Tribune later.