Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-13
The Foreign Stage.
Special Correspondence of The Star.
LONDON October g. 1907

Special Correspondence of The Star.
LONDON, October 3, 1907.
John Galsworthy has come to be looked
upon in literary London as one of the
comparatively new men who count for
much. and who may be expected to fig
coed Barrie. Pinero. Anthony Hope.
Doyle. Weyman, Kipling and other chiefs
among writer's of novels and plays. So
1t was keen audience that gathered at
the Savoy Theater on Tuesday afternoon
to see the first performance Of Gals
worthy's latest play. Joy" by the
vedrenne- Barker Company. newly moved
downtown from the Court Theater.
The scene Of the play was the same for
all three acts-the lawn of a house on the
Thames above Oxford-and the action
took place in a single day. After 1t was
all over the audience departed In an
apparently thoughtful frame of mind,
wondering whether 1t had really enjoyed
itself much. There are some plays over
which the playgoer chuckles at first and
resent in afterthought; and others that
give more satisfaction on subsequent re-
Election than at the time Of performance.
Joy. belongs to the latter class, and Is
the work Of a man who had something
to say that was worth saying-but which
seems to have been too philosophical and
psychological and too fragmentary to be
said suitably in a theater.
In the first act we make the acquaint-
ance Of retired colonel. muddle headed,
irascible and lovable; his shrewish,
capable wife, and their grandnieoe joy"
aged perhaps seventeen, an emotional,
figh-strung, inexperienced and admirably
girlish sort Of girl. There is much at
mosphere," a little comedy, thanks to a
erness, and practically no drama. All we
have to the good at the fall of the curtain
is a general idea that Joys" mother is
coming to see her. that her father and
mother have been long separated and
that a man whom joy doesn't like is
coming along with her mother; also that
the author has somehow created the i'm
preston that he has been clever, and Is
going to be much more clever later on in
the play. In the second act the general
impression OF cleverness and that pres
emily something really and truly Is going
to happen is strengthened In the final
act, the third, the indication that some
thing is about to occur well-nigh reaches
achievement, when the curtain comes
down and the play is over. All that has
| happened is that Joy and her mother
Mrs. Gwyn, have undergone a kind of
'brainstorm," without any shooting.
| Ms. Gwyn's companion, who is an hon
oral BILE and likewise apparently a rather
shifty promoter of doubtful mining stock.
| is it seems, her lover. and she has
| brought him along to try him on her
daughter, Whom she hopes TO keep IN IN
nocence while she keeps the lover in
guilt. But the young girl somehow
dvines the situation, and demands the
whole Of the mothers love. The one
strong situation is the interview between
the two, in which the mother defends
herself and pleads for herself The out
come is that the mother turns to the
lover, who is evidently growing rattle "
tired of her. and the young girl finds
some consolation in the boyish lovemak-
Ssf l. o. Ill
with the incest care to present life as 1t
actually is. with its problems never really
solved. and with fine scorn of stage
tricks but 1t leaves one with the impress
sion that real life is not necessarily good
drama.
A man whose business 1t is to read
plays calls the writer's attention to an
interesting phenomenon. II have this
day." he said. "pioughed through seven
plays by inexperienced writer's. 1 read
ham copscaenti0usly. not hacaNsa,it Was