The San Francisco call., 1913-07-29
GQRT AUDIENCE IS
GRIPPED BY STAR
As a Man Thinks" More
Pronounced Success Than
"Witching Hour"
By WAITER ANTHONY

q
piaygoer is fortified in confidence to
nuy tickets to sec acting and through
sucn presentations that given last night
az the Cort theater. of Augustus
Ihomas' latest and greatest play. trust
III eastern managerial acumen is re-
Vived and thanks are due and payable
70 the Messrs. Shubert or to Charles
Frohman or whoever it was that sent
play people and production to take the
place Of the three weeks Passing
show
Unfortunately there are few plays
ike As a Man Thinks" just as there
are few actors like John Mason. and
. column of critical consideration might
easily be devoted to the question
whether there are any more like either.
After witnessing the play and OBJ
serving its chief player. one might
easily be forgiven the hasty confidence
that As a Man Thinks is the great
est Of American PLAYS. and that John
Mason is the greatest of American
actors
NOT so ..CHURCHY'
Certain it is that Mason proceeds in
no groove set of old for him such as
Frohman made for Drew. Certain it
slso is that Thomas has secured him.
self i'm the technic of the drama since
his The Witching Hour" and has
enanciDated himself entirely from the
pitiful notion that the theater is
church and the stage pulpit
IN AS a Man Thinks" there is a
minimum or prcachment and a maxi
mum of drama New thought'-which
is awfully old if it's right thought
doesn't back you out of the playhouse
into the library during the action of
- a Man Thinks.
do not deny that in the second act
X IS recounted that while little Dick
her Ina he cd
dreams corresponding with the fabulous
story she sat reading at the time.
Neither do /, deny that race prejudice
is discussed even more effectively than
in Zangwilrs. The Melting Pot"
Also it is true that the dual stand
ard Of morality" is a leading motif in
the scheme of Thomas contrapuntal
dramaturgy, but all of these present
ments of the Thomas brain are clothed
like Bach's polyphony with emotion S
cloak Of vivid color or comedy's pretty
frilIs
You do not feel the collection immi-
nent at any time during the progress
of Thomas quite splendid play.
GOOD MELODRAsTA EVEN
Rather in fact than that he should
write an out and out problem drama,
Thomas begs the question in one issue.
IT is this Should a man take back"
a wife who has been guilty? The situa-
tfon is discussed frankly, but artistf- I
caly. Thomas avoids an answer by |
proving the wife indiscreet but not
The most exacting lover of dramatic
"entertainment' could find no fault
with Thomas in "As a Man Thinks"
It is susceptible of approval even as
rnelodrama. if one chooses to avoid the
6IIcult process of thinking
But back Of the story, which begins
11p al ia,
is material for much rehection-as /
have already intimated. Between the
tears that I noticed were started last
night and the laughter that the eco
nomically minded Thomas invited,
there were appeals to that in us which
thinks. or thinks it thinks, and I would
tell you more about this were I to come
70 q conclusion myself
NEL0DRAMA IN THOUGHT
The pleas of the wife about to be
discarded for her indiscretion; the
arguments Of the serene Sarah. who
believes this TO be a mans world; the
consummate summing UP by Doctor
Seelig Of a situation that worries the
dual nloralists' are elements of the
play that excite the intelligence TO act
in contemplation of scenes that rack
the emotions.
Amazing melodEama is imbued with
thought and that without resort, as
Clvde Fitch made in his posthomus play
The city to the hysterical and the
Indecent, and without. too, the appeal
of the weird and extra human that
Knobloch makes in THE Faun." nor
get to the epic scenery of Moody's The
Great Divide
John Mason's acting in the role Of
Doctor Seelig the Jew. whose call TO
m medicine was louder than the elinking
Of the $4,000 600 he inherited, is far
reached in his Jack Brookfeld, the
gambler, in THE Witching Hour"
There are present however, the same
elements of strength
A deep sympathy, an acute under
Etanding, and something deeper still,
which must be found ultimately to lie
5n an actorial genius which is as much
beyond the finger of analysis as any
other genius, whether it be of the
scores Of Beethoven. the canvas of
Whistler or the poetry of Poe.
MASON ALWAYS An ACTOR
Mason is an actor He played a
gambler last year and a millionaire
surgeon this IT makes no difference.
lie is either or both, according as his
play.
The motive Of his author is his motive
lie sings from the original manuscript,
he paints the original canvas. His
copies are IOufU III me- DQl HG O4l41
seems TO find them.
For the success of his Doctor Seelig
Thomas is indebted to him no less than
we who witnessed. All the colors and
all Of the shadows are painted in the
picture The smallest episode is i'm
portant, yet rendered subordinate to
the whole design
When Seelig stands in the doorway
looking fondly at his daughter. who
waits beside her Christian suitor, a
volume Of ancient history is unfolded
By Mason as he utters but mono
syllable Yes" There is the story of
ancient Judea, the tale of iniquities
wrought and the aged hatred Of a per-
secuted race for it's injuries.
When he stands in the brightness of
the fourth act, vet he himself is in the
gloom, and understands that his be-
loved daughter, Vedah has eloped with
the Christian, he offers a few seconds
of as poignant playing as ever masked
itself In the lineaments of life.
Mason is not great only when he has
"a big scene" which the modern star
seems to need TO prove his right TO
the electric letters outside he is power
full when he 6enounces the profligate
husband who would divorce his wife. He
is even bigger when he does those
bits" which accumulated make the
picture His is the "still small voice
Of genius.
GIRLIsHNEsS WITHOUT GIGGLEs
Jane Salisbury plays vedah Seelig,
daughter of the Hebrew physician, with |