War and a Woman [Women and War]

Examiner of Plays' Summary:

A war melodrama, and a very poor and irritating specimen of its kind. Unless the war is vetoed altogether as a subject, which is impossible, it is impossible to prevent the melodramatics being silly and ignorant in their treatment of it, however, it is difficult to forbid the production of a play written in good father, apparently, on grounds of incorrectness. In this case the non-military part of the play is of the usual sort. The villains are Germans in disguise the villainess the daughter of one of them, the heroine another daughter ignorant of her German parentage and sticking to the cause of England for the sake of the hero who is 'of the British secret service'. There is the usual burglary of the safe, the murder fan English wireless operator and the discomfiture of the villains but the nerve and courage of the hero. When the scene is shifted to the front it becomes even more absurd. The villain impersonates an English colonel, who was to replace one recently killed, the assumption being that he was unknown to the regiment. He nearly succeeds in causing a defeat but of course does not quite. The whole of these scenes VI and VII are ridiculous to anyone with the slightest knowledge of military affairs - with the sending of a nurse with a despatch and so forth - and I mention it in case it is thought desirable to forbid such ignorant presentation of the war. There is nothing intentionally ridiculous, however, and the insignificance of such plays I think prevents their doing any harm. In scene VIII, the last, in the house of a Belgian lady, there is a great deal of German brutality, as the knocking down of a woman, the kicking of a child's cradle, the pulling down of portraits of king George and King Albert, and worst of all, the tying up of the heroine on the door to prevent the English firing. It is a question how far the feelings of an audience should be harrowed in this way. But it cannot be said that such incidents are a 1000th part as bad as things the Germans are known to have done, and brutalities as bad are commonly permitted in melodramas. I do not think, therefore, that the play need to be interfered with, but I have called attention to these points because it affords a rather bad example of them. Recommended for license. G. S. Street. PS. I have marked the passages in question in Scene VIII the pages are not numbered, but the whole is very short.

Researcher's Summary:

The play was licensed as 'War and a Woman' but the title was changed and it was performed as 'Women and War'