The Washington times., 1911-03-07
Wholesome Mirth Is Provid-
ed by the Offering at
the National.
MATRIMONIAL MIX-UP
MAKES FUNNY FARCE
Play All that Two Years Run in
New York Might
Promise.

AS a Lenten diversion, filled with
good, wholesome laughs, innocent
amusement and capital entertainment
the National Theater offered the farce,
Seven Days" last night for the week
attraction.
A matrimonial mix-up stirred into ac-
ton by an unlooked-for quarantine Of
an unwilling household in the home Of
the divorced but still-loving pair of
Wilson's is the basis of a theme that
blends several old-time farce situations
into something new, novel and pleasing.
From the moment they let you in on
the ground floor" until they go on the
roof for a breath of fresh air. there
is action of the kind that keeps the 'au-
dience in roars of laughter as complica-
tions pile one on another until their dis
ENHANCEMENT becomes a question of ex-
pert Stagecraft that brings the farce
adroitly to a clever and satisfactory
climax.
Seven Days" is all that it's reputa-
tion of two years run in New York
might promise for 1t, and, from it's re-
ception last night, the week in Wash
tngton should be a prosperous one. The
play tells of the tribulations of one
James Wilson, a typical fat man whose
wife divorced him on the grounds of
psycmcal cruelty'-"just plain fat"
as James puts it-a year before the
opening of action. Wilson is giving a
dinner to few sympathetic friends to
commemorate the first anniversary of
MS divorce when the trouble starts.
Aunt Arrives Suddenly.
telegram announces that his Aunt
Selma, whose wealth and bounty is
James only support, is to drop in on
him between trains. She does not
know OF the divorce, and, being Of the
old school. James must make a bluff
for her benefit. Kit McNair, one of
the guests, is impressed, much against
her WILL to play the wife for the period
of two hours of Aunt Selina's visit.
With blatantly militant suffragette airs
and preachings, decided views on the
duties of wife. a bottle of ''pemona,"
her favortte cure-alI, and a determina-
ton to look into the financial as we'll as
marital affairs Of Nephew James, Aunt
Selma arrives.
Then the complications begin AS
they are about to get Aunt Selma off for
her train, II is discovered that the Jap
snese butler has been taken away in an
ambulance with smallpox, and that the
house is under quarantine, with a heavy
guard to keep all persons from leaving
the house.
s The real Mrs. Wilson. that was, ar
irving that day from Europe, and still
loving her James, sees the ambulance
leave the house, and, fearing accident
to Jim, goes into the house. A burglar,
who figures largely but silently in the
action, is caught in uneasy hiding, a
policeman who was counting the cook
becomes one of the quarantine party,
and the sweetheart of Kit adds more
TO the troubles of the deceiVers. The
efforts of the burglar to keep in con-
cealment cause Anne Brown firm con-
ViCtion that she is possessed of psychic
pIanation of the disappearance and re-
appearance of the telephone, Aunt
Sefinas medicine, and various other
articles.
omeIet Offers Problem.
Just how an omelet should be made
is graphically told in the second act
when each member of the household
is assigned to duty in the running Of
the house. Desperate efforts to break
through the guard are accompanied
by acrobatio feats that demand great
physical exertion on the parts of both
men and women and the train of &C
cident and incident throughout makes
for a continuity of laughs unusual
even in good farce that is brought
to an end by the strengthening of all
difficulties when It is found that the
''smallpoX" in reality was only a
mild attack of chicken pOX and the
quarantine and deception are drop
ped in reconciliation and happines
In the personnel of the company
there is excellent team work"
Helen Cullinan. as Kit McNair, the
impressed wife-under- protest, is clev-
er in her acting of the part and is of
that peculiarly pleasing personality
that reaches across the footlights and
takes her audience into close sym |
pathy. AS the poor fat man" Will |
lard Louis is agile and misses no op- |
portunity offered him by the authors. |
AS Anne Brown Irma La Pierre be |
gins q good part well with a brief |
acting of scene when she is affected |
by the drinking of a cocktail and |
AFst sees her "psvchic" power Clare |
Grenville is a portlv and stately Belle |
Knowles (ex-WilsOn), and Ida Water |
man is Aunt Selma
One of the most difficult as we'll as |
one Of the best acted parts. that of |
the non-talking burglar, is taken by |
Fred Cousins. Others who play into |
the rapid-fire action of the farce are
James Manlcv. William S. Lyon,
Thomas J. Mcmahon, and Frank /.
Davis.