The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1921-06-05


and by the acting for what is goir
aware of what will take place in a
LAY before the characters know. He
keeps ahead OF them, according to
the authorities, to such degree that
the success or failure of a play to
win popularity has often been attrib-
uted to the exaetness with which 1t
conforms to the expectations of the
spectator.
In Nemesis" Mr.. Thomas had to
prepare the spectators for the murder
by a middle aged business man of the
wife who had been unfaithful to him.
OF course. ii took considerable de-
gree OF paving the way to make the
audience accept as possible anything
so far removed from our ordinary ex-
perience nowadays. Men do still. muir
der their unfaithful wives. OF course,
but they are usually passionate, head
strong, ignorant or criminal men who
surrender to rage or jealousy without
thought of the future. But Mr..
Thomas's hero was no longer young
and a successful man Of business.
30 the pldyWTlSut oOdSht " diACiAOA
ate the improbability of this situation
by making the guilty love of the
young wife and the reckless devotion
of her sutton as plain as possible to the
spectators. The consequence was SO
many devices of preparation" that
the public wearied of them. 1t is GER
tain that the audience knew after
their first interview that the lovers
were hopelessly infatuated with one
another.
After the husbands interview with
his butler, his own jealousy was just
as obvious as the guilt Of the two
lovers. Yet Mr.. Thomas was evil
IDENTIFY unwilling to take any chances
He wanted to show how the love of
the two could drive the husband to
such an unusual crime.
Iteration Grows wenrisome.
So he kept on making 1t plain that
the wife loved the sculptor and that
he returned her love and that the
silent husband was getting ready all
the time TO perpetrate a terrible re-
venge on them. over and over again
was this situation meticulously sug-
\ gested to the mind by language or
presented TO the eye. Since the spec
(tators had grasped the whole situation
of these three persons before the first
act was half finished, this iteration
grew wearisome. It was fatal to In
terest. Mr.. Thomas had endowed his
play with too much technique.
1t always Is interesting to observe
the change in the psychology Of
audiences. Would Mr.. Thomas's care
full preparation seem excessive a score
of years ago? Has the public grown
so alert that IL now grasps at
once an idea which the playwright
years ago found 1t necessary to i'm
plant laboriously. although the most
skilled among them usually contrived
to conceal the effort? Victorien Sar-
dou carried the development of this
device further than any of his col
leagues in the writing of the well
made play. although he found it COM
paratively complete, especially among
the authors of melodrama for the
French stage.
In the English theatre Pinero used
the trick with greater mastery than
any OF his rivals. He carried 1t further
in THE Benefit OF the Doubt" than In
any of his other plays. Students OF
such subjects will find Sardou's en-
ployment of the expedient most ef-
fective probably in Dora" which we
know az Diplomacy" but in accord
ance with all contemporary ideals hope
lessly theatrical and mechanical fr
form.