Identifier: playersplaysofla02strauoft (find matches)
Title: Players and plays of the last quarter century; an historical summary of causes and a critical review of conditions as existing in the American theatre at the close of the nineteenth century
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Strang, Lewis Clinton, 1869-1935
Subjects: Theater -- History Theater -- United States Acting and actors
Publisher: Boston, L.C. Page
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ing his most startlingclimaxes into the middle of his acts. Thereone does not like to applaud, because he doesnot wish to interrupt or retard the dramaticaction. These middle-act climaxes beingthus past without any marked outward mani-festation of appreciation, Sudermann starts inon a new development, and then drops hiscurtain just when the suspense is beginning,but before there is really anything to applaud.What grows especially on one, the more fa-miliar he becomes with Sudermanns Magda,is the hopelessness of Lieutenant-ColonelSchwartze. At first, when the drama wasnew, there seemed to be, to one who fanciedthat he had some notion of the provincialGermans strange and perverted idea of honour,sufficient excuse for the pig-headedness ofMagdas father to permit one to bestow onhim the atom of sympathy that was necessaryin order to bring the character within therange of possibility. Upon further acquaint-ance with the facts of the case, however,every vestige of sympathy vanished, and old
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MRS. PATRICK CAMPBELLAs Magda Sudermann and Maeterlinck 261 Schwartze stood forth a selfish, obstinate, un-reasonable, and inhuman brute, who deservedto die, if ever any one deserved to die. Un-doubtedly Mrs. Campbells human Magda, ascontrasted with Mr. G. S. Titheradges exceed-ingly blunt and unsoftened Schwartze, helpedin their presentation of the play to emphasisethis condition of things. Still, I am convincedthat the condition is really inherent, though itmay sometimes be tucked partially out of sightby less pronounced acting. In fact, wholly toeliminate it would be to ruin the motive andpurpose of the drama. The evidence in the case bears out thistheory. Schwartze, it will be remembered,was guilty of the first error. His daughterrefused to marry the minister, and he droveher from his house, — a punishment altogetherout of proportion to the fault, if fault it actu-ally was. Eleven years passed without hisespecially troubling himself about her. Hedid not know, indeed, whether she

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