Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-01-10
FINE REST CURE
RECIPE: DOSE OF
THE COMMUTERS
The Newark's Show Will Make
You Laugh Pleasantly
Without Effort.
CHIC KATHLEEN CLIFFORD
is A BIG PROCTOR HIT
THE Rosary" Delights at the
Columbia, While Fun Riots
at Other Houses.
REST cure is James Forbes's
n.-.....Aanntt H. MANI

A REST cure is James
~ THE Commuters at the New
ark Theatre this week. You take
YOUR seat, sit back and enjoy a couple
hours of gentle amusement minus even
the slight mental strain that comes,
from trying to see through a Joke.
There is no trying to see through
the Jokes in 1.-THE Commuters" Every
thing is quite obvious. In fact. 1T Is the
knowing what is going to happen some
minutes before the players themselves
seem to find it out that is partly re-
sponsible for your peaceful enjoyment
of the whole. You feel that you alone
have been sufficiently Illuminated to
see a joke before it happens. So you
wait complacently and wax uproarious
when it all turns out as scheduled,
as you file out you say with a reminis-
cent grin, Good show, that: I'd like to
see it again
The tired business man. IL he really
wants. as the papers insist, to be Simply
amused and by no means
should take "The Commuters to ms
heart and call it his own. He shoulo
forgive the dullness of som of its mo-
ments because of the refreshing humor
of Others.
This latest play from the pen Oh
Forbes is pure farce, except for a orle1
scene in which melodrama comes into
view. when the wife seriously and
stingingly ~denounces her husbands
conduct, following his expression of
doubt as to how she had spent her
evening Edna Phillips did this bit
very well. Her manner and tones were
convincing. and as soon as the audi
ence grasped that for the moment farce
was suspended it sat up straight and
gave her little effort the attention and
admiration it deserved, but 1t did not
try to hide it's gladness when good old
straight farce, often absurd, but al
ways cheerful, again came uppernost'
1t was glad to realize how well Miss
Phillips could meet a serious moment
hut it was also quite willing to let IT
20 at that, and get back to laughter
and to rest.
Was there ever a farce whose plot
did not hinge on MISUNDERSTANDING,
and should we expect The Commuters
to be an exception? Tabloidally, Its
misunderstanding run something like
this:
The Brices, who have been married
two years, live In a New York suburb.
Four times has Brice stayed in h city
in the evening. to renew the pleasures
of his bachelorhood under the guild
ance OF Sammy Fletcher, a happy-go-
lucky person, who is not married and
does not want to be.
The story begins In the breakfast
room of the Brices. The man of the
house is e~ndeavoring to adjust his tie
put on his coat, eat his breakfast n
lace his shoes all at once, with the idea
of ultimately catching the 7:46 for n
city, along with several other strug-
Cling, hustling brother commuters.
Rollinston and a couple of others stop
in to wait till train time, and reveal to
Brice that when he came home on the
midnight train last night, very much
In his cups, he brought along the
ubiquitous Sammie. hated of all wives,
and tina at this very moment Sammfe
is sound asleep in the spare room.
To Get Rid of sammy's the Thing /:
The Mortified Brice tries to get Sam
ME out of the house, but hears his
train foot, and cannot afford to miss 1t
because of an engagement with his m
ployer. As he and the others fly
through the open French window Sam
my appears before the Mortified wife.
The rest of the action deals with Sam
mics efforts to straighten out the do
nestle tangle he has knotted, and with
the wife's determination to turn the
tables on her husband n give him a