Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-02-04
"YeIIow Jacket" at the New.
ark, Is Poetry in Prim-
tive Setting.
MAN CALLS UP
WORLD OUT OF CHAIRS
Tables Grow Into Mountains as
Beautiful Love Story Is
UnfoIded.

"A kiss! What's a kiss?" asks
WI Hoo Git, the young hero of
THE yellow Jacket" the Chinese
play at the Newark. And Yin suey
Gong, purveyor of hearts, replies, "a
kiss Is when two pollcns, waited to-
gether by q rapturous zephyr, meet
and commingle in joy
This is but one of cornucopiaful
of bright epigrams scattered with
lavish prodigality throughout the
| play. And yet he who would Judge
the play by The canons of serious
drama would do it a grave injustice
For it is at most, ''curiosum,"
brilliant poetical nonsense whereof
jail the accessories that are supposed
| to go with the truly interesting plot
are left entirely to the Imagination
of the beholder.
Cottages and palaces, impossible
torrents and frowning mountain
peaks, weeping willows, embattled
Ecastle-walls, even high heaven IL.
self, are all merely indicated by ia
bles, chairs, bamboo rods and
planks. and never, for an instant, is
the Property Man out of the view of
the audience.
! Tho Property Mans Task.
] And, ah! the Property Man. He is
more than half the play. To him be-
longs the task of sounding the gong
which announces that, the acts are
about to begin; he hands out the
swords with which murders are done
and battles are fought; he directs
the placing of the chair that stands
for crag; of the table which mag
nation is called upon to invest with
the size and appearance of q noun
tain-range; he holds. the lima ginary
horse on which the cruel Tai FAN
Min enters and leads 1t back when
the latter departs. Nay, more, he
hands the spools of colored tape one
by one to the deadly spider god, who
tries to enmesh young WI Hoo Git
in order to kill him, and tits the
Property Man, too, who scatters
handfuls of white confetti to bury
the hero in snow when he reaches
| the mountain-top.
| And he does it all with a nonchal-
ance and an utter disregard of what
1.-THE audience that sees him may
think about it. His face never
relaxes Its stolid expression, or.
rather, lack of expression. And the
comicality of the situation is height
ened by the anachronisms of his
smoking cigarettes and reading a
| pink colored paper with blase OBJ
liyiousness of the hair-raising cpl
codes that may be transpiring, when
lever he gets an opportunity to rest.
Indeed, it Is worth twice the sum
lpaid for admission to visit 1.-THE yell
low Jacket" IL for no other purpose
than TO see the Property Man.
! The Kind One Sees on Mott Street.
He is typical Chinaman of the
Mott street type, and the surprise
amounts almost to a shock when, on
consulting the program, one dis
covers that his name, off the stage is
Thomas Jackson.
Another surprise is that occasioned
by the discovery that the Chorus, as
1.-THE announcer is called, and who Is
a more polished, sleek and self-com-
lplacent Chinaman, bears the name OF
Signor Perugini.
And, in fact, all through the play,
so consunmately are the characters
portrayed as Celestials, that the oc-
lcidental names appear on the pro-
lgram like an incongruity.
But, now. a word about the play
itself. WI Sin Yin. governor of
province, has two wives. He loves
the second one, Due Jung Fab, bet
ter than the first, Chez Moo, and de-.
cides to elevate her who is Second to
1.-THE First place. This cannot be until
the First is dead, and he decides to
remove" Chez Moo gently and
without scandal"
The father of Due Jung Fab hap
pens along at this juncture. and adj
vises calling in the service of Lee Sin.
la farmer. At first the conspiracy is
discussed in guarded, enigmatical
terms, but at the suggestion of the
father-in-law a more secluded room
is sought.
Tho Secluded Room.
The Property Man and his assist
ants enter. turn the table around
and exchange the places of the
chairs, and, prestol You have the
secluded chamber in which the con-
spirators resume their plotting with
a greater feeling of security.
Another scene. the chairs and
table having been removed, is, ac-
cording to the Chorus august and
honorable assurance, Yin's garden.
Yin's First Wife enters, bearing a
piece of wood, about which is
wrapped an infants garment. She
hugs it to her heart and showers
kisses upon it, calling it her darling
child, her WI Hoo Git.
Lee Sin, the farmer, rebels at the
aoYa a mr. 70 ell