This obscure one-act play by American novelist Theodore Dreiser was first
published in the December 1914 issue ofThe Smart Set, followed in 1916 by a
hardcover appearance in Dreiser’sPlays of the Natural and Supernatural.
“InPlays of the Natural and Supernaturalby Theodore Dreiser, written in 1916
before the ‘psychological religion’ was so widely accepted, the author…assumes
that many spirits and forces whisper into the ears of human beings, causing them
to be wicked, heedless of ethical and moral responsibility, and to commit crimes.
The early Dreiser sees the same grim landscape as he later would depict in Sister
Carrie, but in the plays he sees this landscape animated by phantasmagoric forces
and creatures. There is even a malevolent spirit form he describes as ‘the Blue
Sphere’…[that] leads a disabled child toward the railroad tracks and an
‘accidental’ suicide.”
“…of a female shadow who employs a magical blue sphere to tempt a
deformed…”
foreground, as it were, we see a sordid drama played out on the human plane,
and in the background (or in the empyrean above, as you choose) we see the
operation of the god-like imbecilities which sway and flay us all. The technical
trick is well managed. It would be easy for such four-dimensional pieces to fall
into burlesque, but in at least two cases, to wit, in ‘The Blue Sphere’ and ‘In the
Dark,’ they go off with an air.”
Theodore Dreiser: A New Dimension(1965)] “…psychic
phenomena had always seemed real to him as when he had gone to séances, and
played with Ouidja boards, or glimpsed the strange, horrible faces he said he saw
sometimes around his bed at night.”
Billed as “It was presented over a German radio station last June… Verse for
‘The Blue Sphere’ was adapted by Mr. Dreiser from his book of ‘Plays of the
Natural and Supernatural’.”
“Theodore Dreiser’s play, ‘The Blue Sphere,’ which he has set to verse and
music, will be presented for the first time in America in this form… It was last
presented over a German radio station last June.”
[Cleveland Plain Dealer] “The cast will include Margaret Mower, whose last
appearance on Broadway was in ‘The Vikings’...
[Pittsburgh Press] “The first American production of a drama which Theodore
Dreiser wrote especially for radio will be the highspot of the [CBS] show tonight.
‘The Blue Sphere’ is founded on one of Mr. Dreiser’s recent short stories [sic] and
he is said to have insisted on making the adaptation himself in order that he
might avail himself of the advantages of the radio which is peculiarly fitted to his
symbolical realistic theme. ‘The Blue Sphere’ has had but one other presentation,
in Hamburg, Germany, a few months ago.
“Any work by Mr. Dreiser is interesting at this time because of the prominent
part he occupies as an exponent of realism in the current controversy on
Humanism. His best known works include ‘Sister Carrie,’ ‘The Genius’ and ‘An
American Tragedy.’”
The Supernatural inModern English Fiction, 1917] “He
gives curious twists to the unearthly, as inThe BlueSphere, where a shadow and
a fast mail are among thedramatis personae, typifying the fate idea of the old
drama. The shadow lures a child monstrosity out on to the railroad track, after he
has caused the elders to leave the gate open, and the train, made very human,
kills the child.”
The Collected Plays of Theodore Dreiser,
2000] “It is not Dreiser’s realistic plays, however, but his supernatural plays that
have had the most influence on subsequent playwrights… Thornton Wilder was
reportedly influenced by Dreiser’s expressionistic depiction of synchronous
movement. Richard Gladstone, who knew Wilder well, suggests thatThe Blue
Spherein particular provided Wilder with a method for depicting ‘scenes of
continuous and even simulataneous action’ that Wilder would employ so
masterfully inOur Town.”
ha, Hamburg; WABC, New York City, New York (CBS).
June 12, 1929 (ha); June 4, 1930 (WABC).
Georgia Backus (director—1930,The Voiceof Columbia),
Howard Barlow (musical conductor—1930,The Voice of Columbia), Hans
Bodenstedt (translator—1929), Theodore Dreiser (scriptwriter), Hermann Erdlen
(music—1929), Lina Goldschmidt (translator—1929).
CAST [1930,The Voice of Columbia]: Jack MacBryde (Galloway), Margaret
Mower (Mrs. Delavan), Gertrude Riley (Mrs. Minturn), Anthony Stanford
(Peterson), Harry Swan (The Conductor), Louis Veda (The Shadow), Graham
Velsey (Delavan).
None.
June 12, 1929“Die blaue Kugel”
[The Times: “Theodor Dreisser Programme—songs and
poems; ‘The Blue Ball,’ play…”]
June 4, 1930“The Blue Sphere”
set to verse and music, will be presented for the first time in
America in this form…”]