It is true that there is nothing strikingly original nor remarkable in the outline of the story.  That is impossible in a wordless play.  Bernard Shaw, speaking of a pantomime with music, ‘A Pierrot’s Life,’ produced some years ago in London, says, ’I am conscious of the difficulty of making any but the most threadbare themes intelligible to the public, without words.’  Reinhardt was wise in selecting a vivid tale, and one easy to follow.  Besides, he has told the story with remarkable directness and swiftness.  Attention and interest never for an instant flag, owing to the impression of incessant swarming life which we get from the scene before us.  The personages are clearly and definitely characterized by means of the careful working out of the details of every action.  Colors and their arrangement play a positive part in the understanding of the play.

Pantomime is the foundation of drama.  An audience which appreciates pantomime will appreciate good drama.  Action is the element which distinguishes drama from other literary forms, and pantomime is made up wholly of action, hence its very real place in drama.  The greatest moments in life are manifested not in words but in action.  Dramatists are coming to realize that a gesture may be more expressive and natural at tense moments than speech.  We have some striking examples of this.

In the silent opening of ‘What Every Woman Knows,’ Barrie accomplishes, by the chess game and the entrance of the brother, what ten minutes of dialogue would have failed to do.  Roberto Bracco’s ‘Infedele,’ played in English as ‘The Countess Coquette,’ by Nazimova, is a still more remarkable instance.  The play, in lines, is a very short one, but by the use of pantomime, even long stretches of it, there is produced a play of the regular length.  One of the most intense scenes in modern drama is the prison scene in Galsworthy’s ‘Justice,’ where not a word is spoken till the end, when a cry rings out into the still, breathless house.

The ‘Sumurun’ shows that there is much which we can accomplish without speech.  Aside from its value to the drama, pantomime has a large significance for acting.  The necessity of making one’s self intelligible without words forces the actor to weigh and consider every movement, gesture, and facial action.

‘Sumurun,’ like all pantomimic entertainments, seems to have no great value in and of itself.  It is remarkable for the admirable co-operation of the performers, the potency of trained gesture and studied facial expression.  The music, which was written by Victor Holoerder, is excellent in its harmony and appropriateness.  The decorative quality of even the shabby scenery used in America is striking.  It achieves an artistic, oriental effect without gaudy, costly, or spectacular elements.

Perhaps the greatest lesson of ‘Sumurun’ is for stage managers.  All of them might profit by an intensive study of this production.