Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-22
He THEATER.
New National Theater.

NOW MaI10nal IQeatef.
Merely Mary Ann" as presented last
| night with Eleanor Robson as the star.
proved a delightful innovation. 1t is one
Of the few pieces which reflect no egotis-
teal quality whatever, either on the part
OF author player or producer. 1t has the
unobtrusive charm of the wild flower, and
is as graceful and dainty as any bloom
which ever unfolded its petals in response
to a natural love of fresh air and sunshine
1t is difficult to believe that Mr.. Zangwill
wrote the piece as a matter of mercantile
production 1t impresses one as being the
spontaneous expression of a passing idea,
completed as a personal qualification and
satisfying to the authors sense, whether it
succeed in pleasing the public or is passed
by as one of the many uncOnsidered trifies
that each year brings forth. No one but
Mr.. ZangwiH would have had the literary
audacity to choose so bare and familiar
plot. The charm of the story Is In It's
manner of treatment, for its mechanism Of
events Is based upon material on which
the copyright expired many years ago. 1t
Is the story Of the mental who loves above
her station. who finally inherits fortune
and Is married to the man of her girlish
dreams Bluntly told, it sounds like q
Family Story Paper effusion. To render
such trite narrative appealing to even the
average artistic sense is an undertaking
which no one but satirist one who
delights in subtle ironies. as does Mr. Fang
will. would undertake 1t should be Salts
faction to a writer of his temperament to
demonstrate how this bald theme can be so
developed as to yield the most touching and
beautiful strains of sentiment.
The character of Mary Ann has been
suggested time and again in a more or less
refined fashion. AS a rule the wild flower
walf has way of making pert remarks
and relapsing into song and dance that
becomes irritating. But Mary Ann is far
from and above this vivacious miss. She
G hn ErlaI op 1n,,r
ton. and is in truth the being of complete
natural loneliness and refinement that the
stage slavey has been striving for gen.
erations to become. The character Is de-
veloped in an absolutely consistent strain
with no effort to suggest possibilities of in,
tellect or fortune beyond her immediate
condition. The audience must take Merely
Mary Ann as 1t finds her, a trfie frouzy
perhaps, the buzz of dialect obscuring her
speech and her duties comprehending even
the polishing of shoes. The one quality
which animates and elevates her character
Is her supreme goodness and innocence.
Natural intelligence she has of course but
not of the smart and assertiye Kind. 1t is
curious to find this era Of problem plays
and psychopathic studies in hsredi.y TO
find drama of convincing force and
sured popular success whose motive IS
nothing more less than The absolute
purity of young girls nature.
The comedy is plenteous. but 50 ex-
quisitely turned that 1t does not detract
play. 1t Is not enough to say that Miss
Robson idealizes the character. She does
more She realizes 1t. She is skilled and
competent in both of those essential and
yet opposite elements of her art, the ability
tC do and the intelligence not to do
Many an auditor. no doubt, attended the
performance last night secure in the con-
vfction that his heart strings could not be
wrung by the joys Or sorrows of an Eng
lish slavey. America has struggled too
long with the servant-girl problem to an
proach the subject with any sympathe
predspositions
But you vino fear redress of the eye and
huSkineSs of the voice such as come when
our finer natures are appealed to, and we
are compelled for a moment to lay aside our
assumed cynicisms. take warning and do
not venture within the radius of Merely
Mary AIMS gentle influence. 1t will surely
mean moistened pocket handkerchiefs and
perhaps even damaged compilations
Mr.. Edwin Arden, who is well known in
this city, was welcomed heartily and ac-
quilted himself frely as the musician whom
Merely Mary Ann chooses as her childish
paragon. and to whom her heart clings even
after years have passed and fortune has
changed all her surroundings and shifted
her point OF view.
Ada DWyer gave an excellent delineation
Of a London lodging house keeper AS
picture of lowly life Merely Mary Ann ap-
proaches the work of Dickens himself and
at the same time possesses literary polish
and nationality of sentiment which COM
mends it to the intelligence as we'll as to
the sympathies. The manner in which the
piece is staged reflects the highest credit
upon the director, Mr.. Charles Cartwright.