The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-03
SMALL BOY IN new FARCE.
REAL STAR OF "IT'S Am YOUR
FAULT" AT THE SAVOY.
Edgar SeIwyn's Play Wins Praise for Its
Lively Acting Rather Than for the
Authors WOrk-Hcrbert Sheath and
~ Louise Closer Features OF the Cast.

Edgar SeIwyn's Play Wins Praise for It's
Lively Acting Rather Than for the
Authors WOrk-Hcrbert Sheath and
- Louise Closer Features OF the Cast.
A small boy with a round red face, fat
pink legs and a throaty lisp ooh the audi
ence at the Savoy last night into his two
nudey fists and tucked it comfortably away
beneath the ample belt of his pinafore.
The play was all his fault, its success was
largely his achievement, though the services
Of an unusually able company must not be
forgotten.
Master Pinkus began as the escaping
inmate Of a home for boys" and made
his entrance, pursued by the principal,
through an open second story window,
lust in time to be concealed and finally
adopted by a ~farcical husband in search
Of a son, much needed just then to sub
s,antiate the usual farcical lies. The
audience laughed at sight OF his burly
juvenile bearing, and when he lisped his
first bunch of Third avenue slang it capitu-
lated for the rest of the evening.
In the three brief acts this orphan Archi-
bcl9 figured as the supposed wild oat of
the three men in the cast, causing %caniption
fts of jealousy on the part of two wives and
one tlanCcp. lie turned OUT 10 De, In IaCJ,
the crop sowed by a wizened h~ousekeeper,
though the horror of the revelation was
mitigated in the end by the discovery that
she was married to the expressman.
Imagine Dallas Wexford at the age Of s
as a cockney. not Of London but of the East
Side. and you have the measu re of Master
Pincus. There was no mistake about his
being the star Of the occasion. At the end
of the second act the management gave him
a curtain all to himself, and when he winked
companionably at the audience there were
loud cries of Speech" 1t Is probable that
he would have risen to the occasion elo-
nj ently if the curtain had not at that mo-
ment rlnR down,
The farce in which all this happened Is
another matter. 1t is by Mr.. Edgar Selwyn
and is suggestive of his dual capacity as
actor and broker of plays. No one theatrio
calling could be responsible for so many
dry bones strung together by such fimsy
threads of misunderstanding, But what
ever may be the case with a play the farce
is seldom the thing. If its situations are old
playhouse it needs only capable acting to
transmute the said dry bones into what
ia called a rafting good comedy.
And the acting of the company at the
Savoy, or at least Of its leading members.
is for the most part a 10y; Mr.; Herbert
of the enterprise, has a better opportunity
than fell to him as polite villain Of THE
squaw Man, " or as slender Juvenile in aThe
Fa scinating Mr.. Vanderveldt," and he
uses his charm Of personality and refine
ment of speech and manner to great adj
vantage.
Mr.. Edgar Selwyn is hampered by an in
distinct utterance-he chews and swallows
whole syllables, and m~ispronounces many
OF them he speaks; but he has a forcible
stage presence, and scores most of his
points. MIR. Herbert Carr displays all his
accustomed %rotundity and a trife more,
perhaps, than bis accustomed JUNCTION.
The most artistic bit OF the acting OF
the evening is the jealous and loving young
wife of Louise Closer. Hackneyed as
the part is, she plays it with the same I'M
compromising veracity that made her
Prossy in Candida a memorable delight.
Her fits Of alternating tenderness and hys-
terics are alike 80 real that they would be
intolerable if they did not have precisely
the touch Of ~farcical exaggeration to make
them d~eliciously funny.
Az a piece Of stage writing SITS All Your
Fault" is conventional and stale enough.
But Master Pincus and three or four of his
support may be relied upon to carry it well
into the wHTm weather.