"A Man To a Woman” rs. CHORPENNING’S latest play, “A Man to a Woman,” was presented at the Opera House on December i8th by the Winona Players. It was enthusiastically received by a capacity house. The plot itself is intensely interesting from start to finish, dealing with the injustice of the double standard.
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Monica Kerska, a young Polish factory girl, is determined to have revenge upon a In her hunt for him young man who had betrayed and deserted her some years before. she comes to the home of Dr. Martin, a well known physician, where she meets Dr. Thorne, Dr. Thorne is also a sculptor of ability and sometimes studies a famous nerve specialist. his patients by modeling them. By his rare sympathy he gains Monica’s confidence and learns her story. He desires to help her, and in pursuit of this plan, prevails upon her to be the model for a head made in clay. At Dr. Martin’s home also is Mrs. Winchester, a patient, ill of a nervous breakdown due to worry over a son and grandson. The son years before was caught in a common brawl, sent to prison, and reported to be dead. The grandson, Norman Ellis, in whom Mrs. Winchester’s hopes now centered, chafed under her restraint, and went away, saying with true boyish carelessness that he would never return. He has now been gone two years, and Dr. Martin has just summoned him because of the serious illness of his grandmother. Norman appears and his presence and love do much toward soothing the overwrought nerves of Mrs. Winchester. Especially is she pleased that Norman and Carline, Dr. Martin’s daughter, find in each other former playmates, and soon become sweethearts. She believes that this love will make Norman safe.
When Monica learns that Norman Ellis is the man she is looking for, she determines him. Dr. Thorne, who, unknown to Monica, has fallen in love with her, tries change her purpose. He tries to arouse her better nature and to soften her intensely revengeful feelings, but she, although she is deeply in love with Dr. Thorne, persists in her purpose. Just when all seems lost. Dr. Thorne accidentally unveils a second head upon which he has been working, but which has hitherto been concealed from Monica. In this head she recognizes herself; but it is herself with all the bitterness and revenge left out—herself spiritualized. She is overcome by the vision and its prophesy, and gives She hestiates, however, to marry Dr. Thorne, for up her purpose of exposing Norman. she feels the cruelty of the world’s judgment of her offense. It is then that Dr. Thorne, revealed as the lost son of Mrs. Winchester, and himself scarred by the fight to retrieve past mistakes, speaks the message of equality before the moral law—the heart to heart message of “a man to a woman”; and they take each other for what they are, and for what they may yet be to themselves and to the world.
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If the play had been judged by the one night’s performance only, it would still have been an overwhelming success. But in addition it aroused not only the appreciation but the thought of the audience, and for weeks afterward groups of people gathered to discuss the probability and justice of the play. In this awakening of interest the play proves itself to be more than a night’s diversion, but a field for thought and perhaps good. The audience felt a sincere love and sympathy for each character in the play. They are all human and true to life. The play shows that good can overcome evil: in the case of Dr. Thorne, his life is changed by the opportune kindness of Dr. Martin; in the case of Monica, she is transformed by the magnetic influence of Dr. Thorne from a girl with revenge and hatred in her heart to one forgiving and self-sacrificing. A good deal of the success of the whole play should be given to Miss Elorence Youmans,
Monica.
She showed remarkable depth as well as intense sincerity in her dramatic interpretation of the part. The audience was gripped from her first appearance, and held in sympathy thruout by her strong and complex character. Everyone felt towards her what Carline once said: “I don’t pity you, I love you,” and her very high art was shown as
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