Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-31
New National.

The same old comment was to be heard
OH every hand at the New National
Theater last night:
Nobody but Belasco could have done
it."
1t was only by the rare skill of the pro-
Queer that this play, strangely entitled
The Good Little Devil could have been
made acceptable to American audiences.
The program upon which the audience
was forced to depend for interest con-
siderably beyond the prescribed hour for
the first curtain contained some material
upon which to base apprehensive ques-
tion In the first place it was to be "a
fairy play" and there are loyal folk
who believe that there can be no fairies
present unless they are summoned by
Peter Pan. Scattered through the pages
of the playful are some flights of a
slightly doggerelistic muse AS the per-
Torrance goes on these merge into the
impression of youth. in riot of imagi-
nation which has no time fof considera-
tons of formal and studous diction.
Gradually the thoughts of collaboration.
translation adaptation and the rest of the
shop talk of authorship are effaced as the
leaves of magnificent picture book are
turned. one after the other, to reveal the
sweetest or saddest day dreams of lone
ly child. And when at night the fairies
come beauty and pathos are woven to-
gether into a fabric of marvellous deli
cacy.
1t is not only the dreaming of a child
that is shown, but the reality of life
from the viewpoint of a sensitive and in
that comes before it. The aunt who rep
resentS the harshneSs of nnsympathetic
maturity is transformed into an ogress
and a witch and the schoolmasters are
demons disguised in human habiliments.
The retributiOn which enables the child.
suffering from thousand unsupported
smarts, to come back rich and powerful
to lord 1t over his tormentOrs is one OF
the many dreams which come true in
fairy plays. The boyish love for the lit
tie blind sweetheart is stronger than the
boyish vengeance. and the end of the
play is in the atmosphere of complete af-
lection which is necessary to the exist
ence of fairies, who seem intended to rep
resent our sweetest, kindest thoughts.
The symbolism is clear and beautiful;
some play. The little touches of badinage
are touches of sentiment at the same
time. When the little boy Charles desires
to kiss his cherished sweetheart, Juliet,
he is restrained by the thought that
lovers kisses should be exchanged by
moonlight. Straightway all creation is
put to work to accommodate his wish.
The sun is turned off by the electrician
and magnificent moon is hoisted into
view by an obliging stagehand to shine
yet eternal troth is plighted.
There is a lesson in the play-but 1t is
addressed strictly to the grown-ups who
have forgotten childhood with all it's
poignancy of sorrow and resentment as
well as it's intensity of delight. The little
ones who see the play will find it peopled
with frienus whose adventures are con-
sistent with world and an age when all
things are possible.
The bond of sympathy between child
hood and maturity is the poet. a shabby
fellow enough, both in his attire and in
his rhymings, but golden-hearted and
sincere, an ideacst who has not learned
the way out of the realms of hope and
imagination. This part is played by Err
nest Lawford with delightful simplicity
and charm. William Norris has the role
of the terrible old aunt, who is all that
a childish aversion would cause her to
appear. AS Charles dreams in the attic
she performs the hideous rites of her
discomfitures. Mr.. Norris is always an
effective comedian without sacrifice OF
character study. Edward Connolly and
Etienne GirardOt appear as the hated
schoomasters. and the gnomes. the
fairies, the dogs, the cats, the birds and
all the other inhabitants of the little
child universe are represented with rare
skill, whether by human or mechanical
means.
The two roles which stand forth most
blind sweetheart. Ernest Truck gives a
wonderfully good representation of the
lad into whose imagination the specta-
tor is given such fascinating glimpses.
The little girl is played by Mary Pick
ford, q remarkable artist and peculiarly
a development of the times, since her
fame has heretofore rested on her pho
tographs as shown in various moving
picture dramas-a revelation of delicate
temperament, with the instructive realiza-
ton of what is due in infection or ges-
ture that marks the exceptionally gifted
player Henry Stanford is excellent as
the boy grown up and forgetful of his
old home. 1t is a long cast of characters
and each part is well played. The seen
cry is magnificent. as it must be where
the recklessness of childish fancy die
tates the material to be supplied from
the lavishness of a producer like Da-
vid Belasco.
It was the curtain of the years that
swept back as the poet tinkled a bell
a. Ter his recitation of little speech be-
fore each act, and gray hair. brocades
and jewels hung close to the barrier as
their wearers eagerly peeped again into
the garden, the attic, the star world ana
the rest of the wonderland of the long,
long ago.
Columbia.
1.-The Grain of Dust which had its
Washington presentation at the Columbia