The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-03

the composition in the field of good litera-
ture. The situations are such as none but
a master of stagecraft could devise and
manipulate. Perhaps the best of these
novel scenes is one in which Joseph Wheel
ock's son Joseph, who, as the hance or
the Drina "other girl" is run over by the
automobile in which the Elsie "other girl
is rolling away with the prize fighter.
He mas been etherized at the hospital and
has escaped in his patches. bandages and
muddy clothes, drunk with the drug. IL IS
the funniest OF jags. with the confused
chaps enthusiastic accounts of doctors
and pretty nurses, and at the same time
pathetic with his unsuspecting love Of the
silly creature who has been the cause Of his
injuries. 1t is a cleverly written passage
c~leverly acted.
The curtain rises for one act Of Clyde
Fitch's "Glad of 1t" on the sceneless stage
of a theater at a rehearsal. The wings are
displaced by reversed canvases with the
seamy side in sight and the rear wall is
bare with its implanted bricks stained and
patched. You see the stage door from the
inside with members Of a musical farce
company coming and going in everyday
attire; and they embody the vices of the
the dramatic profession. Fitch is a ruth
less disllusionist in this comedy and almost
a misrepresenter yet he can't be called a
liar for telling only the uncOmplimentary
portions of the truth. And those portions
are as funny as they are faithful. The siren
stage actress is rnere With a capitalist TO
delude, another lover receives her sincere
favors, and a librettist. a composer and a
stage manager 10 be distracted by her ca
prices. A lot of chorus women vary from
the one whose automobile toots before her
entrance in ermine and diamonds to the
one whose arrival In catskin and rhinestones
is announced by the stroke of a street-car
bell. The methods of a rehearsal are shown,
not as they are practiced under orderly dis
cipline. but as they are rendered chaotic
sometimes by the inartistic whims and jeal-
| OILS fnmnQT Of q Uanfnn UhnCp dune Ia thu
hacker of the enterprise. There is no deny
ing that this exhibition is true 20 deplorable
phrases Of life behind the curtain. II is
audacious. too, though not impolite. with
references by name 10 Ethel Barrymore
and Maxine Elliott as receivers OF unwel-
come bouquets from infatuated strangers.
and to Julia Marlowe and Viola Allen as be-
ing assigned, by matinee girls blunders, to
wedlock instead OF Mary Mannering. with
James X. Hackett.
XXX
II the well be members OF the dra-
matte profession vince a little while they
laugh at Fitch's exposures, how the ladies
and gentlemen among the employees Of the
big department stores must wriggle and
twist when they see the representation OF
what may happen among them. But again
it must be admitted that the action is pos
sible IN many stores and actual in some.
/ do not believe. however, that the floor
walker in the cloak department of the ex-
ceptionaliy I a o establishment
wherein Fitch locates the scene will laugh
at itself, as everybody else does, in the i'm
personation by Edward Abeles. In the play
he is a silly fop and Inscriptions mash
err among the young women whom he
bosses. He Is very funny. So are the
salesgirls who talk TO one another, while
neglected customers frown. about their ia
vorite actors. and about the scandal OF
their former shopmate now the star actress,
depicted faithfully by Lucille Watson as I
have described. So are the numerous shop
pers who come and go in a variety OF
recognizable types and illustrate their
traits and usages as Fitch has studied
them.
Little Mile James. daughter of big Louis
James by one of his wives prior TO his
marriage with Marie Wainwright, is made
a Frohman star in "Glad Of It," and the
role is not at all like that OF the siren
Of the play within the play. Mile is a
poor and pure salesgirl at the store, a
well-behaved understudy and successor TO
the wicked actress at the theater and a
sweet though shrewd sweetheart of the
others disabused victim during the rest OK
the comedy at a Jersey shore cottage
There a diversified set Of summer boarders
lounge, gossip, dance and fight mosquitoes
on a veranda by Moonlight. and are various
ly ludicrous and sentimental.
Z T
In describing Eleanor Robson's arrival
here with Merely Mary Ann" / may tell
something that you don't know about the
writing and production OF the play. Peo-
pie who always admire Israel Zsngwills
stories, and some who usually don't were
quick TO praise the dainty tenderness OF
sentiment Of the one In which a poor little
clan and poet. II was thought that here
at last was a Zangwil narrative which
would not be dramatized. But Miss Robson
saw a play in IL, or fancied So and asked
the novelist 10 write IL He had been as
positive as any one else In believing the
tale unsuitable for the stage and he chung
10 his refusal until the actress prepared
a scenario. Her manager, George {. Tyler.
felt that il would be dangerous TO de-
pend on such a piece at a critical point in
her career, though he is one Of Zangwills
most ardent adherents. Miss Robson's abil-
ity had been recognized upon her New York
debut In Arizona" but In undertaking
dramatic leadership later she was set back
by a play that failed. So Tyler gathered
material from many lands, a French COM
position about Louise la Valiiere. an Eng.
iish one by Mrs. Humphrey Ward and Ia
n. Parker with q fictitious heroine, an&
others that have not come 10 light. Thx
Zangwin and the Ward-Parker works wer4
| selected for experiments, and, after the tesc0
had been made, il was Miss RobsOn's judg-
ment once more that decided on Merely
Mary Ann" instead OF Agatha"
Few actresses with many roles 10 pick
from would have taken that OF a smudge-
face, cheaply-dressed servant rather than
| some Lazy cara we're lie we're 1tl a
dozen of the mimic fine ladies viii be for
gotten while Miss Robson's Mary Ann re-
mains a living memory. IL Is common in
writing OF the stage 10 magnify the player
10 the belittlement OF the authorize speak
Of a performer creating a character which
the playwright has wrought. But ii is just
as easy TO make a distinction between
what Miss Robson put into her play and
what Zangwill wrote. Evidently IL was
she who developed a lay figure into a hu-
man being. I say this because. had the
same life been infused into the other per-
son OF the novel. all the inmates OF the
lO~dging-house would be alive in the play
instead OF Merely Mary Ann. Aside from
the pOetical musician, Ytalized 90 some eN-
tent by Edwin Arden, the girls associates
I'm the unTaVelling OF the slightly woven
plot are caricatures or else vague. This
Mary Ann probably will make the whole
play survive vigorously as well as deli
cately. She is not so stupid a slaVey as
Dickens's Marchioness was, nor f. she foul
IN her untidiness, but her mind Is small,
though larger than her vocabulary. Her
heart is big, alas. and IL swells bigger for
an ~il-tempered, esOtistical verse and tune
maker. who looks at her only 20 laugh az
her ungafnliness. whose fOndest attention
is 10 fling boots 10 her 10 clean. But she
f.u,e him cffauflV from afrr aud frlao %