The sun., 1908-02-19

THE IRISH NATIONAL THEATRE
PLAYERS AT TIRE SAVOY.
One OF Nr. YSats'S Plays Given BY Native
Actors with q Quaint Accent OF Truth
-MIxed Up with French Farce. How.
I'm q MAJ wuhuSVu, WAm-aS-sa.

One OF Nrs teoSsb rlAy1 GhVen Dy Naive
Actors with q QUAINT Accent OF Truth
-Mlxed Up with French Farce. How.
ever. In Q way wholly Inartistlc.
We have heard much in recent years OF
". B. Yeats's Celtic Renaissance and
about his Irish National Theatre in Dublin.
where, with company made up Of ANA
'eurs--workmen. artisans. farmers, by day
he ard Lady Gregory and others worked to
interest those young Irish men and women
who. in his own phrase. are not conquered
spirits who 60 TO see The Girl from Kay's''
This interest he won abundAntly. and not
only has Dublin been enriched by his thea
ire. but literature as well. for Mr.. .Yeats's
plays have been widely read. and they are
not even unfamiliar on the Broadway stage,
hanks to Mr.. Townsend Walsh and Miss
Margaret Wycherly.
But il has been part OF the poets dream
20 see these plays presented in other ooun-
'ries than Ireland. especially whore there
IRE Irishmen." by the native players. Ac-
'ordingly his National Theatre company
aid down their plumbing tools and hoes and
0ammers and went to London not many
years ago where they were well received
and delicately appreciated. at least by the
more intelligent Englishmen.
But there are moro lrishmen in New
York than in London. And 1t was only
jitting that the Irish players should come
here. That they should make their bow,
however. at the Savoy Theatre in curtain
piece 10 the French farce Twenty Days
in the Shade" is q little harder to reconcile
with the fitness Of things. There was no
need Of exhibiting them in Tammany Hall
IT Tony Pastors. After all, their art and
Nr. Yeatss plays are not for the Irishmen
II the Bowery. for any second generation
Who have begun to forget, but for an audi
once more delicately keyed None the less,
hoy are Irish. their message is above all
4 national one. their performance has
value in proportion as its unique Celtic
favor is tasted. its wistful mood created
and made dominant. Playing as they
lid last night only one brief little comedy
before the noise Of the French farce conf
uuenced what beginnings OF a mood were
created were soon destroyed. Their true
message TO us in America remains still 10
be spoken.
And there is such promise in their work
and in the plays Of Mr.. Yeats, even az we
Know those plays! Unfortunately only
+hree Of the company have been brought
over Mr.. Yeats himself. indeed. remaining
IN the other side. Therefore there is little
or no chance Of seeing The Hour Glass"
or The Countess Cathleen' or The Land
II Hearts Desire plays infinitely more
vistful and characteristic than the morseI
II folklore and farce, "A Pot Of Broth"
played last night. The whole experiment
seems half heartsd, incomplete, unworthy
either Of the Irish National Theatre or Mr..
TrohpnaO ba OataDaib bla auaRAr
The three players who have come are
". G. Fay (the leader Of the company
F. J. Fay and Miss Bridget ODempsey
The Fays we have always with us, but these
are wonder workers Of a different stamp!
That they are amateurs is evident, bu
It is also, save for their authentic and mu-
steal broGue. their greatest charm. For
N their movements, not free from touch
If stiffness a pleasing awkwardness and
ohary Of gesture; in their subdued. almost
piGnissino playing is no hint Of studied
working for effect, no consciousness o..
an audience. They are like children a
play at the game Of make believe II
ts almost impossible not 70 fancy that
behind this artlessness, this very likeness
70 nature itself. lies an art Of the most
subtle sort.
Subdued. almost wistfully. subdUed it is.
The little folk-story, tho tale Of the hegEsr
Who gets dinner by his droll deception
his play upon the credulities Of the Old
peasant and her husband, rouses no loud
laughter, no Anglo-Saxon gllTaws. Quaint
II seems, and quietly comical and undoubt-
edly authentie--but just a bit tame. All
hat 10 the pity Of the experiment. For
hat very tameness, that tOlch ~ wist
'ulnees entering in, might in the pressnts-
ion Of another play have grown into the
mood desired, into the graz or texture Of
The Countess Cathleen,7 for instance. and
wrought upon the beholder and sent him
from the theatre with tho sorrowful respect
Dnd the uneasy Joy that always come
when one has looked deep into the real
heart Of the Celt, the Celt whose glory and
whose bane it Ia to be always ready "to
revolt against the despotism of fact"
SO the coming Of the Irish players Ia not
productive OF what it should and could
accomplish. But what II does do is at
east 40 different from anything else on
broadway, so delicate and significant,
that no true Irishman and no true love T
of Irishmen will miss making trip to
the Savoy Theatre.