6
THE B A T T A LION
THE LIBRARY PAGE
R. H. SHUFFLER Editor
H. C. GIVENS Asso. Editor
J. R. KEITH Asso. Editor
G. M. WREN Asso. Editor
J. W. RILEY Asso. Editor
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page turn work in to any member of
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dents’ Exchange.
“STRANGE INTERLUDE.”
By
EUGENE O’NEILL
Reviewed by W. H. Thomas
In the “Bookman” for October,
Mr. Upton Sinclair gives his literary
credo as follows: “It is my idea
that a writer, to be of any conse
quence, should have something to
say which is likely to be of use to
other men in understanding how to
live.” In announcing an article to
appear in the December “Forum,”
the editor of that publication states
that “O’Neill, Joyce, Dreiser, and
their followers have been dredging
the gutter for a long time. Are they
looking for something or do they
just enjoy wallowing in it ? Will
they sink out of sight or emerge
with a triumphant discovery?”
From the vantage ground of these
two quotations, one a declaration
and the other a question, I am em
boldened to speak somewhat depre
ciatingly of Eugene O’Neill’s recent
play, “Strange Interlude,” which has
been running in New York City for
the better part of a year. O’Neill in
“Strange Interlude” may have at
tempted to forestall hostile critcism
by carefully selecting the words of
his title. The conduct of Nina, the
central character in the play, is very
strange, and, after all, merely epis
odical. Her final restoration to san
ity keeps the play from being un
bearable—at least, to people who get
no pleasure out of “wallowing in
the gutter.” Just why the author of
so good a play as “The Hairy Ape”
should have chosen to write a play
of this kind is difficult for me to
understand, unless his motive was
purely commercial. Samuel Butler
said that a man with a wife and
three children was capable of any
thing. To paraphrase, one might say
that a playwright who starts out
to live off the royalties of his pro
ductions is capable of writing any
kind of play that will draw large
audiences.
The girl Nina, the daughter of a
poor college professor, had a sweet- '
heart named Gordon, who was killed
in the Great War, and she doesn’t
get over it until just before the cur
tain falls in the ninth act. To me,
this is the first unreality of the |
play. All the young ladies of my!
acquaintance that lost lovers in the 1
Great W T ar married other fellows
after a decent interval and are liv- !
ing happily.
Nina idolized Gordon to the extent
that she hated herself for not hav
ing encouraged Gordon to become
the father of her child, regardless, j
To atone for this illusory coward
ice, she gets the queer notion that
she must throw herself away on
anyone that suffered during the ;
Great War.
Then she marries Sam Evans. Sam
was a Babbitt-like fellow that could- !
n’t be happy without an heir. But
there had been a great deal of in
sanity in the family; consequently,
it was Nina’s duty to secure an
alien paternity for Sam’s heir in
order to save Sam from a fatal un
happiness. The whole play pivots on
this situation. As one reads through
the play, one finds oneself con
stantly saying, “It is a wise father
that knows his own son and it is
a wise son that knows his own fa
ther.” Evans leads a happy and suc
cessful life and, fortunately, dies
in ignorance of the real paternity of
his son Gordon, thanks to the re
ligious duty of Nina.
There is nothing much to the play
except some dramatic situations of
a more or less horrific nature. This
play impresses me as a study in
what has been aptly called “phos
phorescent decay.” Of course, it has
the usual sex titillation expected in
art nowadays—this for instance:
“Nina: That last night before he
sailed—in his arms till my body ach
ed—kisses until my lips were numb
ed.” But the movies have done this
sort of thing so much more vividly
that I doubt whether it is any longer
effective as soliloquy.
In the first part of the drama,
O’Neill was near to giving up some
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