The third act which he originally
wrote was found unendurably cynical; a more agreeable third act was
condemned as an anticlimax; and for some time the play was presented
with no third act at all. It did not end, but simply left off. No doubt
it is better that a play should stop in the middle than that it should
drag on tediously and ineffectually. But it would be foolish to make a
system of such an expedient. It is, after all, an evasion, not a
solution, of the artist's problem.
An incident which occurred during the rehearsals for the first
production of _A Doll's House_, at the Novelty Theatre, London,
illustrates the difference between the old, and what was then the new,
fashion of ending a play. The business manager of the company, a man of
ripe theatrical experience, happened to be present one day when Miss
Achurch and Mr. Waring were rehearsing the last great scene between Nora
and Helmar. At the end of it, he came up to me, in a state of high
excitement. "This is a fine play!" he said.
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