Albuquerque evening herald. [volume] (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 1911-1914, 1912-02-05
WHITE MAGIC GREAT
TORRENT OF WORD;
HAS NO ACTION
Play Built on David Graham
Phillips Play is Love"
Story; All the Love Being
Talked.

New York, Feb -Words-thous-
ands and thousands OF words In
streams, In rivers, ia torrents. In cat.
aracts-words of all sizes. shapes and
descriptions, made up the Leap year
comedy" entitled white Magic" pro-
duced at the Criteuln thoater. There
was such labyrinth. such tangle.
such a Jungle. such a medley of words.
words. words that the characters trip
ped up on their lines. swallowed some
OF the words. chOked and were quite
unhappy.
Possibly the heroine. a very sweet
and lovely giJ. wealthy of course.
uttered some 10000 syllabes In her
artloss way; tho hero must have re-
sponded with perchance 10000;
Naughty Pa, the stern parent, was
satisfied with some 5000. Thousands
OF others were distributed among min
or characters--th man she was en-.
gagged to but couldn't marry, the girl
who loved the man she was engaged
10, etcetera, etcetera
white Magic talked through three
aCts-very. very quiet aCts-'at least
as quiet az the talk would allow them
TO be Bui had Il al been Sumurund
into pantomine. the effect would have
been exceedingly odd, because there
was no action, and nobdy did any
thing II was 'dramatization' OF
David Graham Phillips novel by Mr..
Megruc, and u succeeded another
dramatizatiOn Of the same author 8
novel, The Grain Of Dust" al the
ano theater But compared with
White Magic" go, he Grain OF Dust
was seething. swirling drama.
Some of Mr. Phillips admirable
philosophy. OF course, Crept into
white Magic --tbero was plenty of
room Tor philosophy words spok-
en- on the stage, when there are such
thousands of them, do not carry the
same weight as they do on he print
ed page. The stage Is mainly for ac-
ton few actionless plays succeed
unless II be something idyllic as for
example Commander Walk"
white Magic" is a love" story
ali the love being talked. and neither
Rugged nor kissed. She drifted into
his studio one day when Il was rain
ing, and fell asleep, in a pretty white
irock. cut on the bias. When she
awoke he was there, and he made
chocolate for her They talked. Then
they talked some more. Then they
talked some most
Later she was in a canoe having
her picture painted by him She loved
him. She called him Chang. He called
her Xix. She was frightfully rich,
and lived IN an ostentatlous home
in Jersey. lie was nightfuliy poor,
posses sing only $4,000 and socialistic
instincts. She told him that she loved
him, log II was lean year Then they
talked After that they talked some
more When that was done they talk
sOmp most
Mommer came In. very haugty, and
elegantly gowned' She was very
vexod about g, but Xix made her ask
Chang TO dinner he had TO dig out a
shirt To wear, but he dug. lie was
very socialistic. and apparently not
keen on linen, She had a brother, too
She was engaged lo another. but
broke it of Another was an Eng.
li8hman related 10 Dock, and o
good match She sat on q bench be.
side him and talked-they talked
some morC--then some rest
And so Il went on. The only mo.
ment when we Thought we were going
TO get drammer and didn't was when
lie met llaughly Pa, the stern parent
Naughty Pa broke the Ice by saying
stocks have cone 20 hell, and that
gOt a laugh This scene was more
talk. but Il WAS better It was here
that Mr. Phillips philosophy came IN
10 leaven the mass, aud 1t IL didn't
leaven o., SO made gallant at
tempt TO do So He and the stern
parent couldn't agree, SO lie left and
she burst into cars. She would al
ways love him said She Once she
said TO him What thrilling things
YOU do say l}u. the poor chap hadn't
got within 40 niles OF a thrill ana
never dii get within 40 miles OF one,
So white Npgic" coniured itself
yerhosely along and was punctuatod
by the fall OF tie curtain occasionally
II WINS not unpleasant; a was not a.
ritatlng: ON lbp contrary, g sOotned
one into letharey. But IL did miss
being ldyllic somehow or other.
though quiet &c was not the quictude
that charmed here were too many
words: no sileuoes; no pauses. 70 was
an indigestion rod words.
Yet Il was Try prettily acted by
Miss Gertrude elliott Al times she
was simply delicious. As an actress
she has come TO- the front quite re-
markably, and mere Is little that she
doesn't do admirably She Is Young,
pretty. ingenious. and she gets over
an the timv u spite OF The fact that
nothing bat words fell to her LOT she
charmed Personally she made sue
cess. but her play was impossible
A capital character sketch ot
Naughty Pa was contributed by Ben
Johnson. ana as he had fewer words
than the other principals this part
stood out IL was excellently acted
and was real CHARACTER. Julian LES
TRANCE az the lover was "a trifle heavy
and deliberate ior such a charming
heroine Geor-a l.. Guere Was a cub
boy in the approved style. and Alex
ander Scott-Ga.tF played the English
man effectively enough. On the
whole white Magic" was well
spoken
II was a question OF speaking rather
than acting, of c1cution rather than
OF histroinlc effort. Il had rather
pretty setting aud the canoe scene
was restml to .he eye The eve az
any rate had O. rest, even IT the ear
didn't