The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-20
mrs. FISKE'S "NEWYORK IDEA"
TUE MANHATTAN COMPANY
UOI SEUARMED AT THE LYRIC.
,ansdon NItcheII's play u success og
laughter. Is nm AmerlcaniZed
ID OrcOns." FlImsy and Trite. hut
I o Date-Mrs. Ptske at Her LIghtcst.

IAugdOn MltctelIs play u success NJ
Laughter. Is nm AmerlcaniZed
ID, OrcOns." Fllmsy and Trite. but
{ Date-Mrs. Ftske st Her LIshtcst.
Iuder the name of The New York Idea"
Ianrdon Mitchell has satirized the Flanagan
svstem If marriage: and. aided by Mrs.
Fiske aud her quondam Manhattan COM
napv. now successfully hOusewarmed at
me Lyric achieved an undoubted vogue
Of laughter.
Fellow d whim." 10 the motto OF the
NAV. and let he divorce court do the
rest
+ The OG again, on again couple is pre-
sura " not unknown in other cities Of
this ,,.ntry and in other countries Of this
world. blt the success Of this play on the
road demonstrated hat others are glad
10 Law the sin at our door. and it's success
last night IN this midst Of ours showed hat
We are not unwilling to own il. 1t is not an
especially new play. nor an especially good
plsy, except as il is a~bundantly amusing.
To BEE il is not to love the art Of comedy
with all thy heart; but il is to laugh at thy
ueichhor as myself.
Mr.. Mitchell calls his Offering "a play"
In it, theme. as in the prevailing tempo,
il Is a comedy. But in the action and gen.
eral characterization 1t is as preposterous.
as Incredible as the widest farce. Better
skits nave been written in France on the
same SUBJECT. Mrs. Fiske herself has
played "Divoreons,' n in this same
theatre only q few weeks ago we saw THE
Love Letter'-both by Sardou. Those
pieces were frmer in technique. more sven
and consistent in action. fresher and more
avid in chararfa viz nj lon-in n ~unrd Rrsr
rate iarces.
The people Of Mr.. Mitchell's play are as
wildly irresponsible as the folk in a farce by
Labicl.e. But they will be forgiven, for
they are almost as funny. One trembles
10 think what would happen il the acting
we're not superlative. But Mrs. Fiske as
the errant wife was at her comeliest and
most vivacious. Mr.. Arliss had full scope
for his lightest. easiest and most finished
style as an English baronet who falls in
love with W DIVORCES at a single first
sight and marries one Of them. And Mr..
Mason lent warmth and conviction to a
rather incredible divorced husband. Any
question as to what might have been is
academic.
There are two pairs Of divorced people,
and one Of the wives is about to marry the
QUIET uubOuuus AIc BCIiSTn6 Oh l1e pay
is the familiar one Of rounding up all four
in successive scenes. The skill In execu-
ton scarcely transcends that of the farce
of ommerce. But the slamming door of
the Palais Royal Is absent. and 80 Is the
indecoru n. II IL quite p~reposterous, but
altogether quiet.
The one original situation comes, as it
should, at the end Of the third act. Mrs.
KGrsIGke, who is about TO marry her second
in his austere mansion on Washington
Square, has passed the hour Of the wedding
In an automobile indiscretion with Sir
Waired. but even though it is approaching
midnight her intended is game.
The gUests are assembled md the choir
boys in place, ready to chant the bliss Of
eternal love at the raising Of the clergy
mans hands. Then Mrs. KdrsIdke lightly
does q %, and when the parson raises his
hands in horror the choir boys, in obedience
TO Instructions, raise their chant To the bliss
Of eternal love.
For the rest, the laughter Is occasioned
mainly by the ines. Bernard Shaw has
not lived in vain. Sometimes the wit was
forced enough: Many an old wheeze was
again asthmatical. But there was enough
OF the vintage of 1908 TO carry the whole.
II the action and the people had rung as
true as the lines the occasion would have
been a triumrh without reservations.
It must not be omitted that this very
anomalous play Is inspired by a moral pur-
'pose. IL Is not a heavy or a forbidding
moral purpose, but yet Enthusiastically il is
a moral purpose. Marriage is apostro-
phized as a barbed wire fence stretching
from Fifth avenue TO Dakota. Tn sue
cessive husbands are the posts and pre-
sumably the wives are the barbed wire.
Again marital intercourse il t~renchantly
defined not as polygamy nor yet as promis-
Guilty. but as progressive p~olyandry.
IL ..Aat~ - -ktIl--- - - @ANN- -
as seriously touched on. Not the least of the
feats Of Sir WIfred is to intersp rse his
wooings Of the brare o grass W dows with
eulogies or the blessing Of A g chi dren.
Horses, and horse racing bulk large in this
groom is In pired to point out very gravely
that when husband and wife don't hit 1t of
rs a on the horses.
In the last Of the four acts the serious
ness OF the play comes very near dumping
the apple cart. Mrs. KdrsLdke, fresh from
escaping her proposed second husband,
comes back to the rooms Of her first in the
wee small hours. Her motive now as
throughout is at once a jealous fear that
and the fact that he Is her first and only
love. The lines are laid for an ending Of
sympathetic sentiment similar to that
which ~reunites Lord and Lady A~Loy-another
play, by the way, of similar theme, and also
dealing largely in horses, which like the
two French pieces had more body than
this and more flavor. The incredibility
Of Mr.. Mitchell's people is fatal to anything
really moving. Mr.. Mason and Mrs. Fiske
10 their excellent best, but the act is not
very funny and not at all moving.
IL is pleasant to welcome the old Man
haitian company in their new home, n
the town will delight in laughing with them.
But the piece as a whole Is scarcely worthy
Of the traditions Of this the best company
of American Players.