The San Francisco call., 1905-04-01
PINERO BUSY
ON new PLAYS
English Writer at Work on
Two New Dramas, Already
Well on Way to Completion
GORKY'S LATEST EFFORT
jim Corbett to Produce an
Adaptation of George Ber-
nard ShaW's Cashel Byron
Special Dispatch to The Call.

LONDON, March 51.-Arthur W.
Pinero has written one or two letters
to the newspapers recently to advocate
a British repertoire theater, but with
! these exceptions nothing has been
I heard from the dramatist since the
painful affair of "a Wife Without
! Smile.' Pinero, however has not
been sulking in his tent. He has been
hard at work on two new plays. Both
of them are now well advanced, though
as usual with Pinero. there is no tell
ing when either will be finished.
Of late the author Of "Quex" has let
the aristocracy severely alone. If one
remembers rightly there was not sin
gle. titled person in Iris" Letchmere
and his sister were almost the only
swells in Lefty" The characters in
"A Wife Without Smile" were all of
the middle class, and so are those in
| the more important of Pineros two
new PLAYS.
! 1t is possible that the drama which
| Maxim Gorky wrote. or rather COM
| pleted. in the fortress of Peter and
| Paul will never be staged, but an in
teresting account of 1t has just been
published in the st. Petersburg No
vosti.' The play tells of two friends,
one of them scientist and the other
an artist, who dwell in the upper part
of a house, while below them, In the
| basement, a working class family re-
sides. The savant is absorbed in his
experiments, studying how to create
.homunculus" and the artist has been
working for years at a picture with
which he wishes to astonish the whole
world.
The workmen spend their whole life
in toll, varied by bouts of drunkenness
and abuse of the dwellers on the upper
! floor In word, they live no better
/ than savages. The moral of the work
| is that the two elements of Russian So
| ciety can never come to an understand
/ ing while there exists between them
/ such a terrific diff renee in education
and conditions of life.
FARCE BY .STERNER.
Lawrence Sterner, the author of a
lively three-act farce just put on at
the Strand Theater with every prom
| ise of success. a younger brother of
that brilliant American artist, Albert
Sterner, whose illustrations for Mrs.
Humphrey ards new novel are at
tracing attention here as well as in the
United States. The elder Sterner has
lately left London. with his wife and
son and infant daughter, for a pro-
/ longed stay in Munich. The younger
| Sterner, the playwright, is now living
in London with his mother
London's boom in Shakespeare con-
| tinues undated. Lewis Waller, whose
production of Henry W. has been
complete success, Is getting ready to
put on Romeo and Juliet" with Eve
lyn Millafd as the daughter Of the Cap
ulets Miss Tita Brand, who is a great
favorite in the provinces. but rather
less well known in London, will reopen
the Shaftesbury with revival of
| "Othello." Beerbohm Tree will follow
| his present production of Much Ado
About Nothing" with revivals of
Julius Caesar, Richard II and ~
Midsummer Nights Dream and will
also play Hamlet In fact London
/ is to have no less than three Ham
let's" all at once, the other two being
Martin Harvey, who recently appeared
as the Dane In Dublin, and H. b. Irv
ing, whose intention of essaying the
role so intimately associated with his
father was announced some time ago.
CORBETTS LATEST ROLE.
The news that James ]. Corbett is
planning to produce an adaptation of
'.Cashel Byron's Profession" has been
received with calmness by George Ber-
| nard Shaw.
NO" he said yesterday Il have not
collaborated with Mr.. Corbett in any
| fighter should produce a play by me- ?
/ Not at all. Why should /? 1t seems
to me Mr. Corbett is a person of SUI
perior attainments.
''Of course I've written play from
! 'Cashel Byron's Profession l wrote
it here to protect my rights. It's a
very fine play. / wrote it in Shakes
pearean blank verse as / had to hurry
over. it and hadn't time to write 1t In
! the usual prose. But about Mr.. Cor
i bett | don't see reasons why he should
J not succeed either as an adaptor or an
] actor. He is a man who has made a
! success in one profession and will.
therefore, understand that there are
difficulties to be encountered in making
| a success in another. OF course Cashel
Byron is a prizefighter, and there's a
good fight in the book, and people al