The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-12-04
MR. MO0RE'S NEW PLAY
 IS FUNNY, VERY FUNNY
night at The Park Theatre-It's We'll Worth While.

Why do you laugh when somebody slips on a banana peel? It annoys the fellow who slips. It may harm him. Why do you laugh?
 Many answers have been given to that question, all of them theoretical. of the essence of the matter that the man who takes the unexpected drop must not be seriously injured. If he is much injured, the impulse to- laugh ter will become a feeling of pity
 Anybody who can answer the ques- ton about the banana peel to the sat isfaction of a jury of his countr.- men, may then be permitted to make a practical application of his theory. We'll begin now. Here is the chance to apply theory to every day commer- cial use. We shall all be critics soon, and fine judges of the metits of farce comedy.
 Why is Carlyle Moore,s new farce,
 tog is to nave ts Thfn ns tation at the Park Theatre tonight, preparatory to the long run it is req sonably certain to have in New York Last night an audience of Bridge porters laughed until they almost fell from their seats, and while they laugh ed they had all the sensations that ordinarily are delivered. only with a regular play and a full f1edged plot. Here are the materials: A man who is about to be married, his beautiful bride her pa and ma, her sister, detective the best in Providence, some policemen who look like the real thing, a Wall street plunger. a doctor, and minister, 8 housemaid and her pal, thief Pa is an ex-kleptomaniac. The bridegroom hasa inheritance of kIep- tomania- Because the thief is pres ent things disappear, and because things disappear the potential klepto- maniacs fear that they are the active agents behind the .thefts.
 What can possibly be funny in such a mess as that? Why do you laugh when somebody slips on banana peel?
 MT. Moore must make h's appeal to that elem enta1 emotion, but it is apotheosized appeal
 The inherent outer world probability Of stage picture isn't worth bother ing with The only question is, has actors, the talent and practical skill necessary to make the things that are done appear probable during the fleet ing two hours, of the Show2
 That is the test of power, the at mosp1ere of probability which is thrown about the thing exhibited. the audience the feeling that everything is happening just as it inevitably must happen under those conditions, and with such creatures as the author has depicted.
 Mir. Moore has put this atmosphere -of reality into his farce. He has done his work so thoroughly that his farce incongruity carried to the ninth power has a well organized and coherent comedy, with plot. flowing action and tense situations
 world in which about everything that could be done has been.
 E It isn't the function of this article Ito tell, or attempt to tell how, MT. results.
 The play is here tonight and the reader can fine out for himself. if he's interested enough.
 This is merely an inquiry into the clements that make farce. There is no answer They just do:
 Only in one place do MT. Moore's characters step out of the atmosphere of verisimilitude in which he has placed them. This is in the triple wedding scene with which the per formance concludes. This is some scene, and it is incongruous.s but some how it isn't farce. and it isn't even be nice. Somehow tke feeling does not go over to the audience that this particular robbed, abused and injured SC set of of people would cary forgive2eS7s wedding, in which one bride and groom were the persons from whom all the wrongs proceeded.
 However, plays are written to please the folks, and it may be that every audience will contain enough persons who like to see any kind of a wedding under any sor tof condition, to put the situation over.
 But. for ourselves, we would rather see the play end with the dramatic exit of thieves, preceded perhaps by an appropriate promise of repentance
 But, since MT. Moore has put one over,'' why indict the method? Fun is fun, especially when it is free from that SuggeStiveness which is the bane of the stage
 Stop Thief is clean and wholesome There is no double entendre in it. Mo- body has to blush over it. Every laugh is an honest laugh
 And that's something
 SAIL FOR FIORTDA