Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-11-24
discoveries for Washington
in one week.
A real play

A new comic opera comedian.
A very backward season is
bearing fruit at last. Nothing could be
more widely divergent than the perform
ance of THE Secret Orchard" and the
performance by Frank Labor. One was
drama In its most serious mood. The
other was nonsense oersonif1ed. Yet both
stood out in fine contrast to the familiar
array of shopworn plots and commonplace
Glowing. Blanche Walsh. Of course,
needed no discovery. Her capabilities as
player are well known. Her play, THE
Straight Road should ask no better fate
than the charitable obscurity of the waste
basket.
The Secret Orchard steps forth into a
blaze of recognition from the umbrage of
what is technically known as 1.-The tall
timber 1.-THE tall timber is what timid
people seek when they want to hide and
at the same time what ambitious people
are eagerly struggling to leave behind.
The firm that produces The Secret Or
chard,' Hunter, Bradford & Reid. is COM
posed of young men; men who have won
their spurs In the business department of
theatricals. but who have never before
engaged in production on anything like so
extensive scale. The dramatist, Chan
known only tentatively. His dramatiza-
ton of The Pit was rotten. melodra-
matte and mechanical; his original play
THE Little Grey Lady" dealt with char
acter types of slight consequence in a
matter-of-fact fashion, and his play
Clothes did not ring true. either as a
satire or as a candid reflex of smart So
ciety. The treatment of THE Secret Or
oh I'D iS fr,,1t lp,iro Nv
ample of deftness combined with power.
Among the players in the cast there were
several of extended experience. The most
extraordinary work of the performance,
however. was done by little woman
with big dark eyes, whose playing was so
natural that it was at first difficult to de-
eide whether her girlish timidity was
realization of the role or the genuine shy
ness of the recent debutante. Miss Jose
prime Victor in the bills-Mrs. Francis Rei1
in private life-soon made it manifest that
she was no novice. Yet with all her re-
markabe gifts she has never been pre-
scented by Charles Frohman. Her name
has been hitherto unpronounced in the
broadway babel. She has been playing
in stock companies and in presentations
that toured the more remote territory
Her work in this performance promises
more than passing prominence. If merit
can have just a little help from good for
tune 1.-THE Secret Orchard" will bring a
large number of people out of 1.-The tall
timber"
Many people will not consider 1.-The
Secret Orchard" nice" play No one
can deny that it is interesting and well
performed. The discussions it leads to
are ethical rather than artistic. 1t lays
Its foundation on the customary fallacy
of the problem play; the assumption that
people of sufficient refinement and sensi-
bility to make their sufferings and expia-
ton worth watching in the third and
fourth acts could be guilty Of the disre-
gard of human decency which lays the
Foundation of the plot. In this particular
play the aid of Ibsen is sought and
heredity is adroitly offered as an expla-
nation of an occurrence inexplicable on
any other grounds. For the duke, who
tells so tawdry a tale of lfbertinism, is
man of good breeding and high moral
instincts, devoted and sincerely beloved
husband, and the girl with whose life he
plays such havoc is convent-bred child, |
the acquaintance of but a few days and
possessed, as her conduct throughout the
play proves, of a keen sense of honor. 1t
needs all the faith in heredity that can
be summoned to make the foundation on
which the plot is so finely constructed Sc
cure in it's FEASIBILITY. The audience,
however, is convinced and the premises
having been accepted the play develops
Its deductions with logical security
Coming Thro' the Rye is a vastly
more CHEEKY though less scientific a topic.
AS a production 1t is pretty and as play
1t has moments of original illumination.
Some of the dialogue introduced sounds
reminiscent charitable wordD, but It Is
redeemed oy the personal touch of COM
edy that Lalor bestows. 1t seems so easy
for him to be funny that it becomes a
matter of curiosity that many come
dams should insist on being sad. He
makes few grimaces, but they are all
in character and are no interference with
the quiet humor of his work. He dances
little, but does not create apprehensions
of physical disaster in acrobatic effort.
While he uses the grotesque mask of the
conventional Celtic comedian, he pre-
serves a spirit of quaint humanity and
wins the smile of fellow feeling as we'll
as the boisterous laugh of thoughtless
merriment. With material as smart and
I'D to date in lines and situations as
Coming Thro the Rye" Is in songs and
stage effects Mr.. Lalor might easily be
a ranking comic opera star. Perhaps he
might even be a comedian without music;
but there are so many good comedians
and so few real comic opera stars!
The effort to make cheap slang poetic
was no more successful in The Straight
Road than it was in a Fool and
Girl" Mr.. Fitch serves a highly useful
and by no means undignifed purpose
q drawing room dramatist. His invasion
of the slums was not a happy expert
ment. The personal popularity of Miss
Walsh was abundantly shown by the
eagerness to see her in The KreutZer
Sonata" But her warmest admirers can
scarcely suppress a wish that she would
occasionally consent to exemplify femi-
nine nature in its less formidable phases.
PHILANDER JOHNSON.
SUMMER STOCK PLANS.-will A.
Page, who conducted a successful sea-
son of summer stock drama at the Be
lasco during the past supplemental sea-
son, has perfected plans for another Be
laSco season here next spring and sum-