Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1907-01-24
Special Correspondence.

from the pen Of our most prolific dram.
atist. Some years ago two comic operas
by Frederick Ranken were disclosed on
the same night, but this single prece-
dent does not disturb tho uniaueness
of such an achievement as the birth of
intellectual twins. Mr. Ranken's dou-
BILE premier was the result OF accident:
Mr.. Fitch's the natural outcome OF for
tility unknown In any other author
since the death OF Dion Boucicault.
The event was not ono of unalloyed
bliss TO the playwright Mr.. Fitch was
really worried lest the necessity for
producing two dramas on the same
evening might be attributed to desire
for cheap advertising, Then, too. the
matter of being on hand in two places
at once gave cause for anxiety to u man
who realized that, If 1t is impossible
for two bodies to occupy one space
simultaneously. 1t is doubly impossible
for one body to occupy two spaces at
the same moment. The Sage Of Green
witch succeeded in making a speech
after the third act of The Truth" at
the Criterion, and another after the
third act of The Straight Road at the
Aston, but not until the stage manager
of the latter theater had come near
fretting nine years onto his real age.
"a Fitch in time saves nine he was
heard TO observe, as a streak of fur
coat and black hair Swallowed itself
between the back door and the foot
lights.
Alan Dale, speaking of Mondays oc-
currence. credits Mr. Fitch, with turn
ing out "a sixth of dozen, or sew
enty-second of a gross. of plays
week" AS matter Of fact The
Truth and '"rhe Straight Road arc
the third and fourth Fitch dramas Of
fered this season in New York. The
of NIirth'' and The Girl Who Has Ev-
erythng," which is still running at the
Liberty. Goodness only knows how
MANY plays this author has written
since he began tossing of manuscripts.
] asked him that question the other
night and he only threw up his hands.
Myself" as Omar says, can RECALL Il
score, and there must be many more
that nobody remembers nowadays.
Who among theatrical wiseacres recol-
lects "The American Duchess, or
April weather" or "a Superiluous
Husband?r No other man who ever
contributed to our stage had as many
salient characteristics or as marked an
influence on the drama of his time.
could write monograph of 100000
words on Clyde Fitch. But don't be
alarmed. won't.
Partly because of his penchant for
clever light touches and partly because
of the rapidly with which he works,
many of the Clyde Fitch's pieces are TO
the mind of the playgoer what caviar
canape is to the stomach of hungry
diner. They please, but they do not
satisfy. One feels that there must
have been a great deal In the kitchen
of the Fitch brain that he did not take
tie,
thin SO that 1t may cover greater
number of slices of bread.
This cannot be said honestly with re-
gard TO THE Truth" in which cara
Bloodgood Is presented at the Criterion,
and which is the most filling OF tho
Fitch offerings since The Climbers.
'''The Truth" shows a rotundity OF
thought that indicates much loving
care in construction. 1t did not have
what Mr.. Fitch himself calls "a good
press partly because its subtleties
were lost in the hustle of frst-night
criticism, and partly because the re-
viewers could not reconcile themselves
to a leading woman VINO was mar.
Afterward men like Alan Dale, Acton
Davies and Rennold Wolf praised the
piece TO the skies.
/ don't like TO talk about myself. but
IL he counted on popular approval Tor
the drama, Mr.. Fitch made the same
mistake in 1.-The Truth that ! made IN
THE Little Gray Lady" He forgot
that the great majority OF theatersoers
prefer heroes and heroines to human
beings. Both of us tried TO meet our
audiences half way by explaining the
possibility of loving, as Mrs. Browning
has it, FOR loves sake only ANY
way" says Anna in The Little Gray
Lady" II don't love you because you're
honest; ] love YOU because you're you"
atti Tom 1.-The
Truth" I'VE don't love people because
they're perfect; we love them because
they're themselves But IL didn't suit
flee in either case. The plumbers as
sistant in the dress circle, serenely con-
scious that he is loved because of his
absolute faultlessness, refuses TO take
the matter under consideration.
Becky Warder. in The Truth" isn't
really a worse woman on account of
her prediction for falsehood. That
predilsction was born In her, the OFT
spring of sensitiveness and imagina-
ton. The same mental quality that
makes a skilled man able to write lies
and sell them TO magazines nurses au
unskilled woman want to tell lies-to
gild the commonplace, to fill demand
for romance far in excess of the normal
sunnly. II never told a malicious lie
in nv ufe." says Becky. She can't see
the evil of unmalicious prevarication-
Neither can ]. Even IL illatlcioue Hc
is so much less unkind than malicious
truth. Becky almost believes her own
fancles. IF you take the ferry to Jer-
sew CITY" declares her friend, you
say YOU have been abroad" We'll"
REPLIES Becky, 80 ] have" Poor lit-
lie Mrs. Peter Pan! And then, when
Rocky is caught in her own tangled
web when her purposeless prevarica-
ton about meetings with a man whom
she only sought TO reconcile toward his
Jealous ~ lie brings about break with
her own husband, she reaps the reward,
moi az falsehood, but OF her folly.
'sDear God in heaven" she cries. III
ever Gel out Of this I'll never tell an
other lie" After which straightway
she accounts for Toms absence In Bos-
ton Inv swearing he Is in Chicago.
Mr. Fitch narrates the story OF THE
Truth" through nine characters--four
men. four women and telephone. The
construction Is deft, the dialogue spark
ling and the piece crowded with such
riaver "Titchisms' as the scene In
witch three people-wife and friends
s,rnrised by husband--attempt TO make
conversation. II is as II study OF souls,
however, as a masterpiece of PSYCHOLOGY
zeal probing that The Truth shines In
n glorious light Beck Warder-surely
she was suggested by that other Becky
~ Tbnckeray Sis wonderful bit of
character drawing. All OF us know stu-
Md Jealous women like Eve Lindon. We
have them not among our friends whom
we select, but among our relatives, who
aro given TO us by heaven. Roland,