The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-12-27

George Bernard Shaw is one OF those
pedantic posers who purposely write odd
things in order to be kicked and cuffed. and
a provoking fact about the fellow is
so exceptional that he can't be
ignored contemptuously- he Is a London
critic and he strives to be sin
gular, even absurd, in his reviews as well
as in his fiction We now have his Can
dida" acted afternoons experimentally by
Arnold DAILY, Dorothy Donnely, Dodson
Louise Closer, Herbert Carr and
name them because they gave their serv-
ices with risk of abuse IL they failed and
only a gain in reputation If they succeeded
And their success as interpreters CT shaw
was positive. i don't mean To say
that the comedy developed any commercial
value. / don't think il did. And am sure
venture. Not many seekers of pastime at
the theater would take the trouble TO APP
preciate and some of them couldn't II they
would
The man who writes plays for the open
market has TO brand his characters unmis-
takably as sober or facetious, virtuOus or
vicious and. as a general rule. he dares not
put those different qualities at variance in
a single individual, no matter that II -
often so in life. But there is in Candida
a young clergyman who is a right good
fellow and no hypocrite, yet very faulty
with vanity and savagely jealous when
another chap loves his wife: and there Is
quisite sense of honor and a sensitive con-
science, yet scoundrelly 10 the extent or
endeavoring to WOO a wife away from her
husband. The natures of those
two men are reasonable in their
contradictions, but In play
tween right and wrong as embodied IN
opponents and hardly ever do we see the
contest waged at the same time within the
individuals. Moreover, the clergyman IS
laughable in his conduct, and the poet is
ludicrous in his; and, while both are pa
thetically emotional also an evening gal
lery wouldn't permit the parquet 10 be
discriminate, even if il wanted 10. How
ever, the clergyman's sordid father-in-
law. who turns the relationship to account
in getting contracts, his austere typewriter
who overfiOws her small champagne capac-
ity with a jag, and his assistant rector
who is sadly sanctimonious, have been
created by Shaw in a straightway and IN
pedantic manner; and as to the wife, she Is
the sweetest, gentlest darling that ever
carried herself and two rival lovers through
the perils of a triple affair TO a state or
safety. When, al the climax or the men
contention, they agree that the woman
shall choose between them, and she is asked
TO render her decision, she calmly sets
forth the faults of each and says she will
accept the love of the weaker one. The
clergyman thinks she means the poet, and
so do those in the audience who haven't
read the printed play; but in her just and
fond judgment the tempter who resolutely
tries 10 get her is mentally, If lot morally.
stronger than the husband who doubts her
she declares that her help is needed most
by the man who has her heart, and the
curtain falls on the tableau of the wife in
her husbands arms and the extraneous
lover in the doorway CANDIDA" could be
made a salable play by conventionalizing
the clergyman and the poet, but that would
be an artistic crime and l hope Shaw will
never permit II.
The New York theater that seats the
largest audience at the smallest prices
nearly 1900 persons at a dime to a half
dollar apiece-is on the East Side, up Har-
lem way. l went there last Saturday night,
partly because like to see, once in long
while, the kind of a show that the multi
tude likes but the immediate Indictment OF
this visit the title of the play. Cen
tleman by Day and Burglar by Night" was
TO be a paraphrase of "Raffies. the
Amateur Craftsman" and was curious 10
know how the sophistry OF the polite COM
edy would be roughened and toughened
for a rObustious melodrama. The play
wright had observed, no doubt, that even
Broadway people are none too quick TO
comprehend, or ready to- approve, a hero
who robs for the mere sport of It; so he
avoided the risk OF such an aesthetic mo-
tive for crime and made his amateur thief
a gentleman VINO stole for the purpose OF
saving his brother from disgrace. He was
ashamed and sorry, and he closed his Grim
inal career with a burglary which defeated
the professional villains Of the plot The
play was a perniciOus lesson for the gallery
full of boys, nevertheless. for IL taught
them that a robber might be right good
fellow at heart.
However, this drama was beneath the
contempt of the rabble for whom il had been
made That is TO say. the audience amused
itself by taking the most serious scenes
loosely, and while permitting itself 10 be
nOisily excited, never for a moment gave
silently engrossed attention to anything
except the cracking OF safe. That opera
ton was watched with breathless concern,
/ m Ia a
admiration. There had been a diamond rob-
berry, as in "Rafiles, and the jewels were
in the safe OF a receiver of stolen goods.
He was a comic Jew, Of course. II roll
Of the hackneyed caricatures in current
melodramas had been called, those who
answered Here would have included be-
sides that one, the foreign adventures who
wears a sirens black gown glittering with
spangles like "a serpent's scales. the wealthy
chump whom she bewitches and bankrupts.
the Irish servant woman who bulyrags
q luxurious household and butts into her
employers most intimate affairs, the gentle
mans valet and the lady's maid, VINO are
impudent 4, slang and frequent a Bowery
dance dive. the very mOdsh belle, who
goes to that den Of vice 10 save her lover
and gets abducted. the murderOus counter
feiter, who keeps it, the bouncer who sings
a ditty To its buns and then throws them
out and the tiny girl. who is wallOped
about by thieves and cut-thrOats till her
angelic goodness triumphs over their
deviltry.
but l. am neglectlnB the nero or TINS
play, the chap who was a gentleman by
day and a burglar by night. and whose
amateur cracking of a safe was a lesson 10
the audience in professional burglary. He
sneaked at night into the pawnshOp where
a fortune in stolen diamonds was con-
cealed, turned down the lights. discon-
nected the automatic alarm. filled the
safes lock with ntroglycern, at
taehed an an electric to, wire that spitt,ed
| wheel and finally set of an explosion
| that deafeningly blew the safe apart with =
tremendous outburst Of flame Oh, but IT
| was a splendid crime, and when Jack
| Lawrence, the gentleman by day. came be-
| fore the curtain 10 be applauded for his
burglary by night, he was greeted with
| bowling enthusiasm. A pity? Oh yes. But
Raffies, the other amateur craftsman, is
not without the approval OF people who
| clap with gloved hands when he finally fools
| the police and escapes merited punishment.
| And the Harlem gallery may not have re-
tanned the evil example long In their minds.
4 Five minutes later the bONS We're Sfnafna