The Great Sacrifice

Examiner of Plays' Summary:

An exceptionally drivelling melodrama. The hero has apparently committed a forgery and assaults a money lender to get back the proof of it. The money lender dies but a doctor, who is the father of the villainess, says it was heart failure: the villainess however, wanting the hero for herself, threatens to denounce him.The heroine, appraised of this event, tells the hero he must go away and work out his redemption while she goes into a convent and prays for him. Instead of which the hero gets tipsy and wounds the doctor: nothing however, comes of this. He is next found on board ship and after the villainess and an accomplice have tried in vain to murder him he gets a marconi-gram from the heroine saying she is ready now - it is not explained why - to marry him. So he goes to the convent and after the heroine has said goodbye to the Reverend Mother, who presents her with a crucifix, she and the hero are prepared to marry and be good ever after. The comic relief is rather coarse - the comic man being pursued by a black woman and accused by his wife of being the father of her black baby (act 11 pp 1-4), but it is not meant seriously and I think can pass. In act 11 pp 11+12, however, I have marked passages indicating that two of the female characters at a "fete" may be insufficiently dressed and a caution might be given. The idea of a woman entering a convent and then calmly going out it to marry would of course be offensive to Catholics, though it is merely ignorance and the actual convent scenes are harmless. The author might be required to insert words to the effect that the heroine Justine is only a lay help or something of that kind, and has not taken vows: the reason for this might be given as the author is evidently unaware of the objection. The words might be spoken by the Rev. Mother to make all clear [...]