File:New York Times 1910.02.11 New Play Gives Surprise.jpg

English: "At the matinée of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts at the Empire Theatre yesterday afternoon a new play, 'The Eye of the Needle,' by Henry Kirk, was presented by a cast of students. From the applause and the comments in the lobby of the theatre between the acts, both the play and the acting took the audience by surprise. ¶ The play is in three acts, and tells the story of the struggles of a wealthy man to preserve both his honor and his fortune. His wife and her mother are luxury-loving, society-seeking people, to whom the possession of wealth is of first consequence. The man, Franklin Dennie, is trustee of a large fund. A time comes when he must choose between using this fund to his own ends and retaining his position in society, and sacrificing his own money, and perhaps his wife, and keeping his self-respect. The habits of his wife and the nagging of his mother-in-law add to his difficulties. He finally makes the sacrifice. The wife at first decides upon a divorce, but in the end realizes she loves her husband more than she does wealth or position. ¶ The wife was played by Edna Baker, whose performance seemed to meet with much favor. The husband was Philip Perry, the mother-in-law Rachel Ridgley, Dennie's sister Jean Marcet [=Anna Marcet Haldeman], and others who had parts were Philip Barrison, Franklin S. Robbins, Herbert D. Delmore, and Grant Ervin. ¶ Hermann Sudermann's one-act play, 'The Last Visit,' preceded 'The Eye of the Needle.'" New York Times, 11th February 1910, "New Play Gives Surprise: 'The Eye of the Needle' and Student Actors Win Genuine Applause."