Susan Glaspell: Her Life and Times by Ben-Zvi Linda

Author:Ben-Zvi, Linda [Ben-Zvi, Linda]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2005-04-27T16:00:00+00:00

The End of the Dream

22

It’s time to go to Greece.

—Jig Cook, quoted in The Road to the Temple

Because of the heated debate about The Verge, the run was extended to eighteen days, finally closing to make way for the previously announced second bill, Theodore Dreiser’s twenty-seven-character play The Hand of the Potter, one critic noting that while The Verge was considered too vague, this play is all too clear in its degeneracy. Audiences agreed, and the Players found themselves with a depleted subscriber list, a deficit of $1,500, and a disgruntled Dreiser, in California, receiving periodic reports about the progress of the rehearsals and the debacle after the opening. In one note, Jig quotes a sentence from a review of The Verge: “On Broadway there is repetition…. On MacDougal street there is revelation. Let those go who are not afraid.”1 These words did little to quiet Dreiser, who blamed Jig, as theatre head, for what he believed was a sloppy production of his play. In contrast to this failure, The Verge continued to gather interest once the monthly journals began to appear, carrying more extended and generally positive reviews, such as those by Stark Young and Ludwig Lewisohn. In response, the Theatre Guild took over the production and moved it to the Garrick Theatre on December 6, where it began an eleven-matinee run. After Potter closed, it returned to MacDougal Street for holiday performances, December 26–31. While the entire run of the play never approached anything like that of The Emporer Jones, it did have its champions among respected critics and audience members, who were personally touched by Claire’s plight and impressed by Glaspell’s ability to stage it. A postcard Susan received from a young male admirer indicated that the play spoke not only to women: “The play has been the greatest inspiration of my life…. Nothing that I have seen or heard before has so stirred me,” he wrote.2 Another letter came from the president of the New York Drama League, who noted, “I doubt if any other theatre in this country would have had the courage to produce it.”3

Courage was needed even more, now that the Players had to contend with an empty treasury, a road company of Jones still needing attention, and no idea how to fill the third bill. These troubles were also affecting relations between Susan and Jig. His frustration is apparent in a letter to the executive board, defending himself from their criticism over his failure to appear at a Drama League dinner, which he had promised to attend. His special wrath is directed at Susan, who evidently led the others in censuring him for his actions: “Susan did it and the other two of you backed her up in it, and if you are now feeling morally superior about your conduct I advise you to take another think.”4 A second brief note reinforces the sense that the theatre was becoming a battleground for them: “Telegram to the Executive Committee of Susan Glaspell 129 W.

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