New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-06-05
NOTES OF THE STAGE.
Concerning Percy Mackay's Play,
"T'He Scarecr01C.

IA
accepted Percy Mackay's drama The Scarecrow
has brought pleasure to the numerous readers of
Mr. Mackay's earlier play about Chaucer and The
Wife of Bath which both MIR. Sothern and Miss
Bingham prepared to produce but abandoned Mr..
Mackay who is a CT F. F. Mackay. the actor,
is a recent graduate of Harvard and has been
thoroughly trained to academic severity of taste
in matters of style Any sacrifice of poetic values
or of literary finish in his work Mr.. Mackay would
probably never consent to- and the production of
of his plays will mean the appearance on the
Network stage of native literary drama 1t
om or Of r fis 6o to the PSnes o
sibly THE ScarecrOw'' will do something to scare
For The scarecrow'' is none other than Haw
thorne,s story "Feathertop' in dramatic form It
is written in prose. but in prose which is colored
by the imaginative appeal of the subject and by
story The play is divided into four acts: in the
first the scarecrow is brought life in the next two
of revenge and in the fourth the tragedy of the
Wth fhe dausfeT Of his othrs sedgcer and
with Intellectual pathetic passion to be-
death Of this fantastic %S absurd pathete and subS
eharacter o5Iv HaWtborne could baVe Created and
which, Of present playwrights, few but Mr. Mackay
mands Mansfed.an technique. Of the lesser
characters by far the most interesting is the Devil
who appears the prentice of the WrOnged
woman, in her blacksmith snop,, aiding her. to
Hawthorne's stories in American literature. one
Hauptmann for examples of Similar treatment Of
M ps Gn sFev bd
with somewhat exceptional interest
E. A wodehouse. in the "FortnightIy Review
for May, writing the work of Stephen Phillips.
| helps the pendulum along materially in its neYi-
table return swing from the extravagant esti-
| mates of Mr.. Phillips's plays which were pro-
| nounced on every hand when the plays first APP
peared In the course of his valuation occurs this
paragraph which is well worth attention:
higher drama in these modern days is to have
and what he has gained by his experience on the
boards seems to me TO fall short OF what ne has
which nsures that his plays will be well con-
his grip on life, which means that his plays ring
false There is in them none of that genuine
great play time after time, and each time find
something new to ponder over and digest s,s
invariably disapp9ntng When we have learned
appeal there is little left TO which We may re-
turn. What seemed powerful at first tlen comes
once pathetic fails to excite our sympathy; In
short. Mr.. Phillips seems to exemphfy me ruin ruth
plants against the modern stage-the truth name
the glare of the footlights afterward III
| at ease in the light OF the sun Most OF our
living playwrights have been actors. and II Is a
curious fact that at the present moment the only
nai force and natural insight into character are
men who have received no regular theatrical train
| ing.
But it would have been kindness on Mr. Wode-
houses part to have told who these two extraor-
! binary writer's of plays are!
force of carpenters took possession of the Lyric
| Theatre after the performance of 'Fantana on
| Saturday evening and put in four extra rows OF
| chairs This was accomplished by placing the
orchestra under the apron of the stage II in
creases The seating capacity of the house by about
two hundred The immediate necessity for this was
the fact that the graduating class OF west Toirs
viii attend the performance Tuesday evening. June
I3. occupying the entire orchestra Eoor
Leopold Spachner will begin MS season at the
| windsor Theatre, of which he has obtained the
| lease for a term of years. with Paul N Orlenef
and the Russian players. They will pres! present the
drama OF Theodor Dostoievsky entitled The kaha-
Tnason Brothers" tonight and this r,I viii be fol,
| Ibsen's Ghosts" Tolstoy.s "Tsar Feodor Iyano-
| witch" and Tchirokov's The Chosen People In
the engagement of three weeks they will also pro
! duce a new play. the of which will be an
| nounceG later Nine ALA Nasimof who attracted
| favorable attention the Herald Square and Muir
! raw Hill theatres: N Orloff 6. Kramskoi, \.
! Karaten and the other members of this organiza-
! ton remain for this engagement. At the close OF
the season many of the actors Will return at once
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