Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-07-19
AS A MAN THINKS"
IS REMARKABLE PIECE
Boston Transcript Says It Is Crown
of Mr.. Thomas Work as Dramat
ist Of First Rank.
PLAY OF MANY AND VERY
THOROUGH sAT1sFAcTIoNs
Breath of Life, Humanity and Fine
Achievement in It All and Inter
est and Skill Shown.

Thinks" acted, for the first time in
Boston at the Shubert last evening, so
many and so thorough were the salts.
factions of piece and performance
Here at last was an American play by
an American playwright for which and
for whom it was not necessary to make
allowances. Mr.. Thomas is long
breather, rare quality among our
dramatists nowadays, He can write a
play in four acts, two hours and half
long, without tagging, without pad.
ding, without subterfuge. He can fill
it with his ideas and his narrative,
with his Characterization and his con-
versation, and hold his audience (Which
was numerous and discriminating last
EVENING" intent upon all four He can
write with the constructive skill prop.
er to a mature playwright long prac-
ticed in the theater. He can pene.
trate human nature, and reanimate and
differentiate it in the personages Of
his drama. They speak also each ac.
cCrding to his or her nature, and vet
with subtle touch of style, espe.
cially in the play of light interchange,
that marks them also as of Mr.. Thorn.
as creating. He can invent and con,
duct from stage to stage plausible
and engrossing dramatic narrative out
of our own and his time, place and
circumstance. He can preserve its hu.
manity and plausibility, and yet give
it theatrical effect. Into this nara.
tive and proceeding, believably, out of
the personages concerned, he can work
the ideas about well-orlered life, the
influence of mental states, the stand
ards of chastity in the sexes, the traits
and beliefs of fine-fibred and finely
cultivated Jews that he would have
his play bear. These ideas endure ex.
animation, stimulate thought, provoke
debate. In a word, Gas Man
Thinks" stirs both the mind and the
emotions in the theater, stimulates the
faculties both of enjoyment and iudg.
ment Now to do these things, and in
as ample measure as Mr.. Thomas has
done them, is to be dramatst of full
stature in the full sense of the word.
The acting, the whole representation
of the play, was worthy of such a
drama. The settings not only suggest.
ed rooms in which men and women
lived, but rooms which the particular
pcrsoTages inhabiting them had or.
derea according to their inclinations,
A year of service and iourneying has
little worn this scenery, but sugges.
tion is more important than unrough.
ened paint or unfrayed stuffs. The
dresses of the women, the garments of
the men were as characteristic of those
that wore them. One and all Of the
personages moved to and fro in these
rooms as though their surroundings
and their assumed selves were natural
to them, as though those rooms did not
open upon an auditorium, as though
no spectators were watching the incl.
dents unfolded or hearing the speeches
| interrhanged. Not detail of speech
or action had rough edge or a sug'
gestion Of mechanical repetition; there
was hardly a hint Of histrionic artifice
The verisimilitude of the representation
was illusion itself, The engrossed spec.
ator resented the fall Of the curtain
and his brief lapse out Of the play and
vowed that the Shuberts for such
pieces deserved a revolving stage, Mr.
Thomas rehearses his own plays and
has a considerable share in the pick.
ing Of the players. TO him then in no
small measure fall the rewards Of such
production.
The players themselves served play
anl playwright well It is not easy ia
recall Mr.. Mason acting with such
! freedom and vitality, with such sense
Of the character he was impersonat
ing, Of the large or subtle histrionC
means that he was using, of his share
ia the drama as a whole. His imper
sonation was threefold, in the high Eu
ropean sdNse, in its blended mpart
ment OF his parsonage, his own per
sonality and his skill as an actor
Moreover, his part required him to sug
pest man Of thought, Of weight, Of
belief and Of character, of high self
ccntrol, Of broad and kindly iuig
ment, Of deep and discerning affec
tions, Of the manners Of the cultivated
world. The maturer Mr.. Mason--and
especially the Mr.. Mason who acts as
he acted last evening--can denote
communicated and enforce these attri
butes. Miss Herne indeed keeps GER
tain hammered, intonations which arc
often the complement Of beautiful and