The Washington herald., 1913-11-11
COLUMBIA.
"The Honey Bee.,'

when Housewives all the House forsake
And leave Goodman the brew and bake
Withouten guile, then be 1t said
That House doth stand upon its head
So runs an old proverb printed in
the program of the Columbia Theaier
this week by way of suggesting TO the
audience the sort OF thread that was
used by Hutcheoson Boyd and Rudolph
Bunner to spin the tale of The hoheg
Bee" the new comedy which mao us
practical premiere at the Columbia iast
night at the hands of Harrison Grey
Fiske.
The play deals with the highly i'm
probable entrance into an inventor
home of a rich, butterfly cousin OF his
wife's at a moment when the family
is destitute because of the mans fail-
ure to perfect powerful INVENTION
offering, to finance further experiments
provided they are made by the young
wife, while friend hubby remains al
home in the capacity of maid-of-all-
work, including the. care OF the Two
small children of the distressed couple.
Prof. julius witherspoon, the in
ventor at first receives the idea as
a crude Jest, but is driven to its ac-
ceptance by feature to procure po-
sition.' So Dora transfers the lamp TO
a studio below, and for month works
untiringly to perfect the invention
abetted by her cousin, Mrs. Billy Mar
tin, and the whippersnapper count
whom the latter has in tow, while the
husband receives the kind services, in
his efforts to keep body and soul to-
gether in the kiddies, by Barbarossa
Marx, janitor of the Hoboken apart
ments to which the Witherspoons have
resorted, and his daughter Gertrude.
But at the moment of Dora's triumph
her inventive genius proves a non est
quantity, and the story which began
with her emancipation from the ac-
cepted life of wife and mother ENDS
quite conventionally, the professor per-
fecting his own invention and the
mother of the tots attending to their
physical distresses, while the disturoer
of the home peace goes her way win
the French count as thoroughly in
cased in her own conceit as in the
beginning
The Honey Bee" is farcical in treat
ment, satIrical in spirit. and humorous
in spots. The first two acts are talky
and dull. but the piece brightens con-
siderably in the third act in which
Allan Pollock gives a most humorous
imitation of the worm that has
turned in a night of with his German
friend Marx, the janitor, spent IN
drunlSen hilarity, a condition of which
he rids himself with surprising speed
when the fourth act demands a cledT
head for the completion of his work
on the wonderful lamp,
Mr.. Pollocks characterization of the
down-trodden inventor is excellent and
consistent throughout, while Miss Fanny
Hartz is delightful as Dora. Her technique
is so natural and effective as to almost
persuade one to believe in the sincerity
of the too easily influenced wife, a de-
lusion which might be consummated
were it not for the utter impossibility of
the characters with which the dramatists
have surrounded her in the persons of
her cousin, Mrs. Billy Martin, and the
Count Pierre de Freville, to which most
inconsistent and difficult roles Miss Marie
Chambers and Benjamin Kauser do their
utmost to convey the intention OF the
playwrights.
Eugene A. Hohenwart as the Dutch
janitor is excellent Miss Marion Pull
lar gives a faithful picture of Gertrude;
Morris and Helen Millington are a clever
duo in their portrayal Of Jack and jill,
the much neglected Witherspoon chill
dren, and Roy Merrill could not be worse
in his small part Of the Bangor capi-
talist who comes down TO Hoboken for
Dora's final demonstration.
Mr.. Fiske has set the farce comedy ar
tistically, and has chosen capable folk
to tell the story, which shuts us up to
the conclusion that the lukewarm re-
ception given it last evening is due to
the fact that THE Honey Bee lacks the
good red blood of reality and the power
to offer more than a himsy entertain
ment.
JULIA CHANDLER MANI