The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-03-29
Two New Religious Plays.
BY FRANKLIN FYLEs.

al reviewers and then they shut the
house for that night, not to reopen it
for another performance until whole
days newspapers had told the city all
about it.
BY suggestion amounting almost to
assertion, the author of 1.-The Servant
i'm the House" invites his audience to
believe that, by reincarnation, the soul
of Christ possesses the body of Chris
tian bishop i'm India; and that, thus
Cody good and wise, the bishop hires
out as a servant in his English vicar
brothers house, there to reclaim that
brother from hypocrisy, another broth
er from degeneracy, and expose the
evil ways Of a rascally brOther-in-law
bishop. The in and out and around
about of the plays story would be slow
reading in a synopsis. 1t is a ruthless
study and denunciation of churchly
evils.a truly remarkable composition
an allegory in which religious good
and evil are personified.
You may care to know how such a
drama as this has reached a perform
ance. Edith Wynne Matthison is an
English actress, who played the SYM
bOlic sinner in "Everyman," the old
morality play. with God vocal in it but
not visible, which lately made a tour Of
this country. The author of 1.-THE Serv-
ant in the House" is her husband, an
actor, but looking and talking like a
clergyman, and led by the effectuality
of "Everyman" to undertake a similar
ly symbolic piece Walter Hampden,
the bishop butler, was in the Every
man" company, and ii was through his
belief in the project that It was pro-
NOTED. Mrs. Matthison-K ennedy, as
mistress of the house with the Christ
like servant, is one of the eight az
tresses whom 1 mentioned as being
helped in prosperity by new plays Her
role is subserVient to those forced into
dominance by Tyrone Power and Wal
ter Hampden. Another among the
eight, Bertha Kalich, displays her tai
ent finely in Marta of the Lowlands."
but the drama has toured the states,
and so isn't a bidder for space here.
But Laura Nelson Hall, by previous
calculation, and Ruth Maycliffe, by
force of circumstances, get ahead with
Girls"
Fitch's intention is to make fun Of
iyl-bachelOrs, and Ruth gets the juici-
est slices from his humor Then, too,
she is hunk of delicious meat IN her
self Was il for Iassoing Texan steers.
OF for breaking Arizonian bronchos.
tiidl SIlt NOH prize somewhere In the
southwest? And what was it that
Roosevelt did to distinguish her at the
White House? Such tales so often show
the touch of the advertising agent that
l seldom read more than the headlinec
This girl is new Lolita, though, and
Girls first New York audience went
foolish over her She has something
TO learn in acting, and she may have to
tight off her huggable plumpness from
becoming rotundity quite beyond pos
sible human embrace; but my best
guess is thar by next season she will he
a star Coincidence. l don't see how
she can help it.
X X =
Clyde Fitch's Girls" is posted as
his fiftieth play. All of the fifty
that have amounted to much might
nave borne the same title for his ex-
ceptiOnal skill lies in the creation of
girls, from children TO women grown
Three of his latest creations in
Girls" are bachelor girls, who swear
over crossed hatpins every night be-
fore going to bed. to despise men and
never marry. Laura Nelson Hall is
the earnest leader of the trio, and the
most obdurate to hold out against
sexual love. Amy Ricard is middling
loyal to the pact. and therefore of
neutral account Ruth Maycliffe is A
giTly girl, from her fluffy mass of hair
to her tiny toes. with no faint of