Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-01-29
NEW PLAY
IS DAINTY
COMMENCEMENT DAYS" PROVES
PLEASING
AN AMUSING PICTURE OF COL
LEGE LIFE
Miss Margaret Mayo Has Succeeded
Admirably in Creating "Atmos=
phere". for Her Highly En-
ioyable Comedy
Ry sIDLE LAWRENCE

~ OILOWING a by no means re-
stricted list of college plays which
u NAV be said to include "On the
Quiet" "Strongheart' and Brown OF
Harvard comes commencement
Days" a pretty little comedy written
by Margaret Mayo and when does Ior
a girps college what the other plays
named do for Yale, Columbia and Har-
x,ard respectively. Commencement
paws" is presented at the Belasco this
week. where 1t was given its first pro-
dnction on any stage. The program
attributes authorship to Margaret Mayo
and Virginia Frame Jointly, but 1t is
said that the dramatlzation is MISS
Mavo's. the incidents of the plot having
been suggested to her by Miss Frame
The fun of Commencement Days"
naturally will appeal with most potent
force to women and particularly to col
1epe women. It's humor is distinctly
feminine gender. In writing it Miss
MAYO has displayed dainty knack OF
epigram wholly divorced from spleen
There is never a sting in any of her
smart savings. We laugh, but we do
nor laugh, nor are we asked to laugh,
at the puncturing of some human
foible or the laceration of anothers
feelings. Her wit is kindly. good
natured, charitable. It is of the bou-
doir and the fireside not of the street
or the club.
Play Has No Problem
There is no problem in Commence
ment Days" The audience is not Gsked
to think. The comedy presents merely
n trinity of little love stories in an
unusual setting So far as mere
man may conjecture 1t, / should mn
agine that Miss Mayo has succeeded
admirably I'm catching the atmosphere"
of a girls college For this opinion
moreover, | am indebted in large meas
IRE to a party of young women VINO
sat near me in the Belasco last night
and who seemed highly appreciative OF
the play. One of them wore the CHdge
of a prominent eastern sorority and
she should have known whether what
she saw was real or sham.
AS for the story, 1t needs strengthen
ing in places; notably I'm the first act.
The comedy Is slow in getting under
way and-curiously in woman's play
the love interest is not strongly
enough developed. Miss Mayo shows
us a right thinking young woman VINO
permits herself to be suspected OIL inert
rather than betray the culprit, her girl
chum. Now it so happens that this
Young woman is In love with her
chunls elder brother, and before mat
ters have progressed very far she IL
led to believe her lover responsible for
the crime. Yet she seems to guard the
truth not through love for the man
hut because of her friendship for her
chum. The situation, | believe, would
he stronger were the motive love rather
than friendship. Perhaps that was
Miss Mayo's idea, but If so she has
failed to indicate it with sufficient
clarity.
Men May Not Understand
There are some things in the comedy
that will not readily be grasped by
masculine minds. Men, for instance, do
not expect courage in woman, though
they demand of her something vastly
moro difficult of ttainment-fortitude.
Kate shows that she is possessed of
both these virtues Then there are the
twins. alike as two peas in externals,
but Numerically opposed in tempera-
ment and habit. That's something that
requires explanation If you are IN
critical mood.
However. the story of Commence
ment Days." and even the little niceties
of character drawing. as the comedy
now stands, are subordinate to the pic
lures presented of college life as it eX-
lists in such institutions as Vassar,
Smith. Wellesley or Barnard. They
are intimate pictures Miss Mayo mas
drawn for us, and they have been
limned with a deicacy and naturalness
truly charming. Nothing daintier, for
instance, than the closing scene of the
first act could well be imagined. Yet
I venture to say that it could not be
described i'm cold print without giving
offence. at least in some quarters.
Then, two, there is delicious humor IN
that auction scene of act two.
AS for the Zines" here are few,
jotted down upon the borders of my
program during the action of the play:
Miss Mayo's Best Lines
Says one of the twins, who might
we'll have been the class prophet, adj
dressing the class poet: you VIII
write poetry about the same babes
'Bugsy,' and Emmy Lou viii spank;
ANY corners coZy If you've got the
right girl in it." This, of course,
spoken by one of the men who, few
minutes later remarks Love making
is thing you can't learn at college.
It's a matter of instinct"
"Advice is about the easiest thing IN
the world to give and the hardest to
take"
ITO be loved only means that you us
ten to other peoples troubles and don't
tell them your own"
And this, which should appeal
to every sorority girl, and which
has it's fraternity application as well.
"What do these societies do? why,
they get their pictures took
The sold Grad"
Perhaps the funniest bit in the entire
comedy is provided by an old graduate,
a professor of Greek in a New Hamp-
shire school, who returns to the col
lege carrying tender1y a life-sized rag
doll and when asked what that has to
do with Sophocles or even with Zeno-
phon, explains that she has been in
vited to deliver an address on the
proper care of infants and that she is
trying to get the feelings of a
mother"
AS for the manner of the comedy's
playing there can be nothing but
praise. Miss Katharine Emmett plays
Kate with an excellent appreciation of
the requirements of the role. 1t is Miss
Florence Snlythe, however who car
REG OF first honors Miss Smythe is
Rates chunl, who steals that she may
help a well beloved younger brother
out of a bad scrape. There were many
women in last nights audience who
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