The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-06-29
NEWS AND GOSSIP
OF LONDON STAGE
Glimpses of New Plays Of
Famous Dramatists
"THE SEVEN SISTERS"
Quick Failure of Play-London Does
Not Quite Know What to Think
of Edward Knoblauchs
Play, "rhe Fawn'
"THE SEVEN SISTERS"
by JOHN AVA CARPENTER

/
London. June 2s.-(Speclal)-Whic of
the three great dramatic rivals, Barrie.
Shaw and Pinero, will score hardest when
their three new plays are produced next
season? When Charles Frohman put ON
that famous triple bill consisting of one
act pieces by this distinguished trium-
virate you will remember. all the honors
went TO the Scotchman and since then
none of them has given US work of any
| Importance, though Sir Arthur Pinero
was represented recently at the st.
James by a dramatic sllt' which was
too unpretentious for serious criticism.
Now, however, dates have been set
definitely for the production of three full
sized plays by Barrie. Shaw and Pinero.
and it will be highly interesting to see
which author comes best out of the in
evitable comparison that will be drawn
between their efforts
Authors Are Non COmmittal
As usual both Sir James and Sir Ar
thur are noncommunicative so far as de-
tails about their new pieces are con-
cerned. and even Shaw has less to say
than is his won't ''Androcles and the
Lion" as the Irishman calls his new
play, is. of course, scheduled for produc-
tion by Lillah Mccarthy and Granville
Barker, the management which gave us
'Fanny's First Play" and in response
to an inquiry about it Shaw delivered
himself tersely thus:
ut is absolutely nothing but the old
childs story of Androcles and the Lion
the man who pulled the thorn out of the
lions foot and then came Christian
/ lfN,. t., . 1,
arena. OF course the lion was the thorny
| one and would not eat him. The piece is
in three scenes which will be played
through In Granville Barker's best
| Shakespearean manner, and isn't like
most of his plays, an excellent humani-
tartan and Christian tract"
| This piece of Shaws will be given by
the Barkers at the ST. James druing
the temporary absence from that fashion
able playhouse of its ultra ia shionable
| actor-manager, Sir George Alexander
/ truly these theatrical "sirs" are as thick
| as blackberries nowadays-and will be
| the first of the Irishmans many pieces
| to hold the boards there. In all proba-
! bility 1t will be Immediately followed by
Sir Arthur Pinero's now long play-the
| first we have had from him since the
Mind-the- Paint-Girl." If there is any
! thing in the choice of a playhouse this
| fact should count in Pinero's favor, for
the st. James has been the scene of
some of his greatest triumphs. There we
| had THE Squire 'The Second Mrs
! Tanqueray,' THE Princess and the But
terfy' and some years later. His House
| in Order" and Mid Channel
AS to Barrie's Legend of Leonore"
! one may add to the details already fur
nished that besides Sir John Hare and
| Mrs. Patrick Campbell for the principal
roles, Charles Frohman has now en-
that 1xxrax It.rl,t ft,l IN.I.
Lewis. and those exceptionally promising
juveniles, Godfrey Tearle and Frank Den
| ton for subsidiary parts.
"The Seven Sisters" a Failure
! | fear you will see 1.-The Seven Sis
| ters,'' the piece from the Hungarian
which Norman Trevor put on so pains
| takingly at the Savoy for it was per-
! formed here exactly IA times, or two for
each sister. Undaunted. however. by this
! preliminary cropper, Trevor is about to
| try his luck again, this time with a new
! play by Edward Hemmerde, NJ p. X. c.
who collaborated with another member
of parliament, Francis Nelson. in the
writing of THE Butterfly on the Wheel"
which Lewis Waller produced so success
fully in the United States 1t is a lot
rarer, by the way, to find lawyer. par
! ticularly a kings counsel, which is the
highest rank short of judgeshp that
an English barrister can attain. writing
| plays than to find a member of paria-
ment doing so. the house of commons
having supplied quite a lot of dramatists,
A. f. w. Mason, for example, and the
| late Claud Lowther, who in "The Gordian
Knot furnished Sir Herbert Tree with
one of the most colossal failures in that
actors experience.
Like the present home secretary, the
| Right Hon Reginald Mckenna, Hem
merde was formerly a mighty oarsman.
| having crowned a distinguished record
in this line by winning the Diamond
Sculls. When he produced his first play.
| "A Maid on Honor, in 1906, he was sit
ting in parliament for East Denbigh,
! fact which accounted for his nom de
plume, as printed on the programme,
| Ernest Denby." His new piece. "A Car
dinals Romance which is the fifth of
which he has been either author or part
author, to be produced in the West End