Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-17
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES Z. TRAcEWELL.

plays, said: 1.-THE sheer humanity of
1t swept aside all critical carping and
its tender irony and wisdom struck q
iom' is undoubtedly touched with the
divine spark of genius"
That Is professional Judgment.
Nearer to the hearts desire of this
fanciful, truthful play is the verdict
rendered all unconsciOusly by an elderly
woman, who perhaps had never read a
play in her life. having been busy with
living. She had never heard OF Ferenc
Molnar. Yet, after seeing the Aim at
Philadelphia theater, she wrote SEN
tence which we have had the privilege
OF seeing: Il saw play which Will
never forget. It's name was 'Liliom. +"
And why did this woman see, in the
story of man who struck his wife,
something which she would never for
get? Every woman reader of these lines
Will understand, and most men WILL too.
although many of them might attempt
to make out that they did not.
''Liliom" is q great play precisely
because it puts It's finger on the fact
that no man ever lived, no matter how
much he loved woman, who did not at
some time or other hurt her. either
physically or neutrality-suspicious. If
you win. He may have done it pur-
posely, or he may have done 1t as a
mistake of Judgment but he has done it..
And the good woman, no matter what
the hurt, has always forgiven him. That
is the secret of the power of 'Liliom, .
and of every good woman, such as the
Julie OF the play was and Is, for she is
q continuing character. It Is all summed
up in the last lines of the play, when
the daughter asks her mother, Mother,
tell me, has 1t ever happened to you,
has any one ever hit you, without hurt
ing you In the least?" Julie replies,
Yes my child. 1t has happened to
me. too" The daughter continues, "Is
1t possible for some one to hit you,
hard like that and not hurt you at alp"
Julie says-and these are the last words
1T is possible, dear-that some one
may beat you and beat you and beat
you-and not hurt you at ALL"
There perhaps has never been a play
into which the next world has been
brought so naturally, IL one may so
put it, as in this "Lilliom" of MoInar's.
Even the scene showing the coming of
the heavenly police for the bullying
Liliom (done with a train. in the film,
but well done), is executed in relation
to the characters whole mental atu-
tlde toward life.
We have here a fanciful concept
which both writer and reader. Or play
wright and auditor, admit is highly
fanciful indeed. yet like because it re-
suits from the inner light of the char
acters concerned. The staggering
Liliom would have liked TO have been
kinder, II he had known how. When
the heavenly police tell him that, after
his return to earth for a visit, his
future state will depend upon whether
he has done some kind deed for his
cute such kind deed.
But what he did was to slap his child
It was q Lilliomish gesture, natural
satisfying, the act Of man who was
determined not to bow his knee, to
humble himself, to fawn. at any price
He was the same old Liliom. There Is
something satisfying about that. The
heavenly magistrate understood him.
"Liliom," he said, I'VE see through you
as through a pane of glass"
The play "Liliom" portrays the bad
in man, fighting with the good in man,
and winning out; but above and be-
yond that 1t pictures the good in woman,
fighting with both the bad and good
in man, and winning out above them
all. 1t shows love. browning evil, for
getting not the evil but the hurt, for
giving because able to forget the hurt
There is scarcely a line in the play
worth quoting, as there scarcely ever
Is in conversation, but there is q great
deal worth remembering and loving,
as there is in life.