Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-13
The Foreign Stage.
Special Correspondence of The Star.


| LONDON, January 2. 1907.
| Is there really a prejudice in England
| against American plays? The question has
| been asked a good many times during the
| last few years. and most of us who are
resident in this country would answer it
with an emphatic negative. The fact re-
| mains, however, that quite a number of
| folk on the other side of the Atlantic are
| convinced that such antagonistic spirit
! does exist, and as these include several
authors and managers whose opinions on
| the subject are based on personal expert
| ence. ii would be wholly preSumptuouS to
dismiss their view as without foundation.
One thing is certain, and that is that if
English critics are predisposed to SLATE"
and English audiences are predisposed to
boo" American plays, they will have a
golden opportunity to exercise these predi-
lections during the next few months, for
probably at no previous time have many
American pieces and American productions
generally been underlined for presentation
in the British metropolis. Counting the
adaptation of 'Mdlle. Josette. Ma Femme"
which Michael Morton is making for the
Haymarket, these pieces number exactly
ten, and it will be interesting to see what
treatment they receive at the hands of the
London ploygoer and the accredited keep
ers of his dramatic conscience.
Ladies first" and rightly too, this time
for it constitutes reflection on her mas
culine countrymen to say that of all the
American plays due in London shortly the
one that is arousing most interest is Gladys
UngerS "Knave of Hearts" which Jerrard
Grant Allen will produce at the Criterion in
a month or two. This son of Grant Allen,
the novelist has blossomed into quite a
successful London manager, and he may be
said to have introduced Miss fingers work
to tie metropolis, for although Arthur
Bourchier has had her Sheridan" in his
portfolio for year or more, and though
another piece from the American girls pen
was done in the provinces by Laurence
Irving, nothing of hers had been seen in
London itself until young Grant Allen put
on her Lemonade Boy as a curtain raiser
to THE Amateur Socialist" AT that time
compliments were showered on the young
authoress So whatever treatment is melted
out to the other American made pieces,
Miss fingers new four-act play, which is
decidedly melodramatic in character, is
likely to be given the benefit of any doubt
that may exist.
OF the other trans Atlantic pieces to be
seen in London. one, ID Arcy of the
Guards will be given by George Alexan-
der, and on the face of it this would seem
to speak badly for the output of British
dramatists, for the policy of this popular
actor-manager generally has been home
made pieces only. 1t is we'll known, how
ever, that Alexander has new pieces by AL
fred Sutro, Stephen Phillips and ]. B. Fa
gan in reserve, so probably his acquisition
of the American piece is due to desire to
return to the romantic line for a WHILE at
ter four hundred nights or as the philo-
sophie brother-in-law in Pinero's House in
Order 1t is rather hard to say just when
Alexander will be able to give Darcy of
the Guards though. for Pineros greatest
success is still crowdng the st. James and
now promises to run straight through to
Easter.
AS a fact the American season. may be
said to have begun in London already, for
at the New Theater we now have Julia Neil
son and Fred Terry back again in Paul Kes-
ters Dorothy o the Hail. while David
Bispham has scored in THE Vicar of Wake
field at the Prince of Wales and Clyde Fitch
likewise at the Duke of York's, where his
adapted version of ''Trippleplatte" has just
passed it's 125th night The American event
of the season will be the visit of E H.
Sothern and Julia Marlowe to the Waldorf
Theater. This Is sure to be an Immense
draw" whatever comments the critics may
make. and In the meantime, besides the pro-
duction of the new Morton piece at the
Haymarket We are to have Lena Ashwell
back in her American purchase, Clothes"
and later on to see her in still another
transatlantic piece, THE Woong of Eve"
Add that Charles Frohman promises at
least two new productions of plays from
America and you will see what a wholesale
opportunity there will be for Stating on
the part of English reviewers if 1t is really
true that an American production has the
same effect on these judges as that of red
rag to bull. With a memory, however, of
the generous praise that was showered on
Leah Kleschna' received and of the ap-
preciative receptions that were extended to
The Dictator and practically every other
transatlantic play that has been under
standable and come up to the London stand
ard 1t is difficult, l said at first, to con-
vince oneself that any such anti-American
feeling exists. either on the part of Eng
llsh critics or English playgoers.