The Washington herald., 1910-01-30

thdt Maxine is handsomely Tall anu oaih n
while Billie is prettily small and light?
II you have ever seen them act, and are
told that now in new plays both exploit
their sex In fights with concentrating
old bachelors, can't you guess further
that Maxine triumphs by assertive domi-
nance and Billie by insinuative cajollery?
Billie Burke, in Mrs. Dot is girlish
widow who chooses a man 10 be her
second husband; and knowing he loves
her, she asks him why he won't WOO her
One reason is his poverty and her
wealth: but that is eliminated by his
Inheritance of an English estate and
title. Still, he won't be sutton. because
in an hour of mawkish moonshine, he
has engaged to marry a girl he doesn't
care for, and who is careless Of him.
That knot will fall loose without untying,
Billie thinks, but 1t won't, for the mans
sudden wealth renders him desirable 10
his fiancee; and the play is made up OF
Billie's cuts and slashes at that peslIy
knot, her tricks TO undo It and devices
to break It. and then ENHANCEMENT OF
other persons in the snarl.
Somerset Vaughan is a Frohman au-
thor. Billie Burke is F'rohman actress,
and Vaughan has written into Mrs.
Dot" a role that FITS Billie like the
modsh gown she wears. Lolita Crab
. trees celebrity was before your theatrical
time, likely, and can't name present
resembling mixture OF naive ingenue and
saucy soubrette. To incite jealousy in
the lover whom she dotes on, she makes
believe to pursue the disdained woman
hater Ike a girl satyr. What with the
nicely of Billie. the wit OF Vaughan and
the drollery OF red Kerr" an actor
brought from London, the encountHr
makes the best OF the comedy's fun.
Vaughan an English Clyde Fitc
The fat slob OF an old bachelor eIudes
the hugs and lodges the kisses Of the
dainty little widow; and she is so in
sistent that he thinks her in earnest;
whereupon, he turns upon her with
pretended outbreak OF real passion. II
fools her. She believes that her mock
endearments have reused libertine 10
madness and is scared to a panic. It is
a travesty OF a weak girl versus burly
villain in many a melodrama. Kerr chases
Billie around chairs and tables, holds
her struggling in his arms, and her
lover, coming 10 her rescue. IS so Jealous
at last that he begs to marry her.
This Vaughan is the English Clyde
Fitch in his def way Of delineating
women in comedy unconventionally. Mrs.
Dot is a creature oftener come across in
reality than in mimicry. Fitch used 10
pick out an actress for his every heroine
as soon as he had settled on the type
needed. and I am told that Vaughan
wrote this lates. OF his pieces with Billie
Burke in mind. She is Mrs. Dot 10 a T.
Five pounds more of flesh would make
her too heavy. 4 tone higher or harsher
in her voice would CRATE on the listeners
10 her audacious talk. A perceptible
trace Of sensuality would render her
coarse. For in the course OF the play
she declares her real love to one man and
her bogus love to another; hugs and
kisses both in genuine or imitation zest;
and not many actresses. even with
hundred times her skill. could DO that
and be agreeable with it,
''T'he Inferior Sex"
They are professional writers, the en-
tertaining young folk whose conversa-
tional squabbles IN midocean constitute
the delightful new comedy Of The In
ferior Sex" which introduces to US Frank
Stayton. an English dramatist. and re-
stores our own Maxine Elliott To New
York The little fantasy is witty and
JoyouS-alive with youth and merrlment
and romance. If you insist on the
strictly reasonable in a play, don't go
10 this one But II you care for a trlfe
very like a COOL laughing breeze in sum-
mer time, don't miss II. The title OF 1.-THE
Inferior Sex is derived from a book that
a woman-hater is writing to expose
feminine inferiority. He has come alone
IN his yacht for long voyage 80 as 70
suffer no distraction by that sex. But
a very beautiful embodiment OF II is
picked UP half-frozen, almost starved, IN
drifting cat-boat
That is Maxine Elliott and Arthur
Byron. hate her as he may. has TO take
her abroad, though he doesn't let I'D
snarllng at her. The two are the only
persons on the yacht except a valet and
the crew; so the whole play is their
wrangling-the mans belief IN his hatred
OF women; the wornan's delight in play
ing with him, teasing him, making him
prove himself wrong. OF course. he ends
by loving her. But stayton shows a new
freshness Of humor and invention In
keeping of the conclusion without a mo-
ment's tedium.
The young woman is writer Of fiction
and after her first fear, she begins to
enjoy the situation hugely. But she feels
more should happen. She decides the
crew should mutiny They are SO well
paid their hours are so easy, that she
has to search her literary recollection
FOR q provocatiOn or course-the kegs
OF brandy beneath the cabin floor! That's
always the incentive. And the bags of
gold In the lockers! Unfortunately the
crew does get enough Iiquor-though from
cut-glass decanters and the llke-to try
mutiny. But their object IS the beautiful
girl. She, however, thus comes to find
the woman-hater something of a hero
while the audience stays TO find that two
acts Of healthy, alluring merriment have
not left Mr.. Stayton without wit and IN
vention for as excellent a third.
Some Mems Plays.
A pious faith healer is rejected as q
hero in one serious new drama and a
burglar by trade is accepted IN another.
A ludicrous butler can't make folks laugh
in one farce, but they get merry readily
over humorous artist. The actors thus
cuffed or patted are Henry Miller, Henry
B. Warner, Henry E. Dixey, and William
Collier
The gift of nature to the hero OF alias
Jimmy Valentine" is representative fin
ger tips. That makes him llght-fngered