The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-12-10

or fantasy. They want what is direct and
obvious. The sort of humor tina appeals
to them Is the slap-dash brand of the
Rogers Brothers. The sort of sentiment
they like Is the manufa ctured pathos OF
Way Down East" The sort of action
that stirs them is the gallery heroics OF
melodrama OF the HISTORIES of the emo
tional actress In Eexual plays. The sort
of spectacle that pleases them is the I'M
draped chorus in b%urlesque or extrava-
ganza.
That is not the sort of audience that can
SO ~delicafber hntasial. SO gossamer-like
as Barrie's Hh ~.ter Pan" Barrie is a man
that requires to be met half way with
something of the quality of Imagination,
both native and educated, that he himself
infuses into his work. Without such re-
Spouse his efforts to entertain us are
bound to be fruitless. They were all but
frpitless last night. N~ewarkers, apparent
ii, Ae too sophisticated, too unwilling to
kearcn lSeReath the surface, to give pool
BARRIE, poet and genius, quaint. worldly
Rise>humorist, champion and spokesman OF
drrepressible youth that he is, half a chance.
All they could see was a play that fought
to amuse the children That was the
best they could say for 1t. It's beautiful
symbolism of mother-love, its many sly
s~atirical digs meant solely for adult APP
probation, all it's larger Significance, all
its exquisite poetry, Its intangible, inde-
scribable charm, seemed lost upon them.
But enough fault has been found with
the audience, and the audience was not
wholly and solely to blame. Somehow
Miss Adams and her fellow players could
not seem to get the meaning and mes
sage, and, above all, the humor of the
play, over the footlights with quite the
L L1Tv1 &C.. tt1.- 10
fore. Probably they felt the attitude of
blighting Indifference on the other side.
Probably a long road campaign was having
its effect.
Peter Pam is an idyl of child life, the
dramatic apotheosis of youth. of its dreams
and extravagant fancies. 1t is full OF
beautiful, tender sentiment and humor Of
the Sentimental Tommy" sort that only
Barrie could have written and only the re-
sources OF the modern stage could enable
him to put into dramatic form. But 1t is
not-and here we must acknowledge a mis-
take in not having previously made that
point clear-it is not a play for everyone.
1t is a play for the chosen few, for such
only as can appreciate the exquisite
imagery of Peters pronunciamento that
s'every time a baby laughs its first laugh
q fairy is born" Those to whom this con-
veys no Joyous meaning should be warned
away. For their superannuated sophis-
tication or their uneducated sense Of art
they are to be pitied. But Peter Pan" is
not for them.
The story of the play has been told many
times already, but a brief rehearsal won :.
hurt. If it suggests the possibility of any
thing more than a play for children and
the nursery. If the reader thinks he coul1
enter into the poetic spirit of it with some
thing of the abandon of a child at play, ne
should 20 and see 1t. Perhaps he'll even be
able to discern Barrie's own mocklng So
classification, as he laughs at those others
TOO sophisticated to understand.
What he will see will be the coming of
peter Pan-the Boy hat Wouldn't Grow Up
and be President, the elfin spirit of eternal
youth, the sur rising, poets s~inging"-the
coming Of Peter and his attendant sprite
Tinker Bell, in at the window of the
nurs ry of the Darlings, looking for
Peters lost shadow, after Mana, the faith
full dog, had put all the Darling children
20 bed and Father and Mother Darling
had gone out for the evening. He will see
peter teaching the children how to fly.
and. taklng them with him to the Never
Never Never Land, where all the other
lost Rows live. He will see their adj
ventures with the pack of wolves and the
terrible lion, which could only be fright
ened away by looking at them between
ones legs. He will see the fights with In
dams and the ferocious Pirates and the
fierce Captain Hook, the crocodile that
swallowed the hand of the pirate captain
and the clock ticking way in its stomach
to keep 1t company the building of the
house for wendy, the little mother of all
the Lost Boys; the capture of Peters
band by the pirate and Peter TO the
,escue: the defeat + the pirates by Peter,
who. single-handed, made them all walk
the plank and fall. with a terrible splash,
TO a watery end; the final return of the
Darling children to their mother, and
Wendy's visit to help Peter with his
spring hou~secleaning Either it Will all
mean much to him who sees 1t or II WIN
mean nothing. There will be no half way.
AS compared with the original New