"The Captive" is Excellent Drama of

.BY `GEORGE JEAN NATHAN.... † •The accurate translation of such

N

EW YORK, Oct. 9.—The remarkably fine presentation at the Empire of Bourdet's excellent "La Prisonniere" proves, among other things, that Gilbert Miller has inherited his father's

GEORGE JEAN NATHAN

talent for the direction of actors and, in addition, that he possesses & skill in the staging of a dramatic manuscript that his father never approached. If

& more

competently produced play in every one of its details has been shown in New York during my occupancy of the critical chair, I do not know its name. From the extremely adroittranslation of the original play by Arthur Hornblow, jr., to the matter of casting, and from the thoroughly deft maneuvering of the actors to the physical embellishment of the stage, Miller has managed the exhibition perfectly.

The result would seem to be a vindication of his theory that in neither the old nor the new manner of acting and staging is to be found the secret of complete theatrical effectiveness, but that in a combination of the two lies the true gunpowder of performed drama.

Many touches in the production reveal an uncommon understanding.

minor detail as the French way calling # telephone number; the handling of the lights, quite naturally and with not the slightest suggestion of Belasco hocus-pocus, by way of counterpoint to the changing dialogic mood; the natural yet very impressive manner in which the characters are distributed over the stage during the turnings of dramatic action; the greater comprehension with which the role of the perverted woman has been directed and which results in a more telling performance than that vouch-safed it in France—these are but a few of the things that make the presentation at the Empire an unusual theatrical achievement.

As for the play, it seems to me to be as profoundly wrought a drama of the wos of physical passion as has come out of France since PortoRiche's “Amoureuse."

It is unfortunate that the nature of its subject matter should operate to deflect major comment from its intrinsic worth as a drama to its mere worth as sensational theatrical fare. The very critics who are perfectly willing to consider "Oedipus Rex," for all its perversion, as drama pure and, simple, seem to be Indisposed to consider the present play in a like manner. Its Lesbian motif they don't seem to be able to get entirely out of their foreconsciousness.

The old moral note is to be detected in four out of every Ave reviews of the work. In this connection it is amusing to observe the acrobats of a number of the local reviewers in their attempt safely

Daring Theme

Here's Key to Week's Amusements in City's

Principal Theaters HANNA—“Song of the Flame." OHIO Film Version of “BenHur."

PLAY HOUSE—“Sun-Up," beginning Wednesday.

PALACE-Joan John and Baldwin Sisters, other vaudeville and films.

STATE — Allen Zee's orchestra, other vaudeville and films.

KEITH'S 105TH-The “Great” Nicola, other vaudeville and films. ALLEN-Philip Spitalny's orchstra and films.

HIPPODROME-Helen Cardiff, other vaudeville and films.

-

METROPOLITAN George Williams and his Rhythm Kings, other vaudeville and films.

CIRCLE — Scott revue, other vandeville and films.

COLUMBIA-Musical reTUE, “Around the World”

EMPIRE—Mutual burlesque, "Moonlight Maids.”

BAND BOX — Continuous burlesque, “Some More Blondes.”

Euphemism

to get around a forthright statement of just what it is that Bourdet's play is about. hasn't had such a hard row to hos since "The Girl With the Whooping Cough" was put on at the New York theater twelve or Afteen years ago.

Instead of telling, without sion of smirk, precisely what is the nature of Bourdet's heroine's derilection, the timorous gentlemen hem

¦

Land haw in the manner of the celebrated smoking car story concerning the peccadillo of the author of ""The Ballad of Reading GaoL'

Just what there is to offend any newspaper reader in the word Lesblan is difficult to make out. Yet, to read a number of the reviews published the day after the play's premiere, one would think that they were composed for either the Christian Herald or the Youth's Companion.

Thus, the usually direct Mr. Ga|briel-who, alone of the reviewers, at least alludes once to “the aisles of Lesbos"—confects in the Sun such sidestepping as the following: “This is a late paragraph in which to specify the problem of the plot of “The Captive." It is a paragraph I have rewritten and crossed out ten times over for the tender benefit of those who know enough-and not too much--about' Sappho, Havelock Ellis et al. And 3 give it up with the satisfaction of having overheard two sweet young things in the lobby deciding that few persons would really get what it is all about. Well, my mother wouidn't,' said one of them."

Thus, we encounter in the Times such evasions as "twisted relationanother ship with woman" and “warped infatuation” in the World, such euphemisms as "tormenting Impulses” and “bondage" in the Evening World, such equivocation as “the poisonions serpent's spell of a (Continued on Page S, Golnum 3.)