Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-10-06
THE FINE ART OF FTBBINC
Grace George at the Adelphi in a Delightful
Revival of CLYDE Fitcl's Tho Trnilr

Revival of Clyde Fitch's The Truth"
Lying, said Oscar Wilde is fine art. with
Clyde Fitch's Becky 1t was a state of mind. II
the heroine of "The Truth" played bridge she
said she won If she hadn't, she said It anyway.
II she wanted to excuse herself from an engaRe-
ment she said that she and her husband were
going out Of town, ut sounds so much more in
terestIns' Nobody could exactly blame Becky
unless it was her perfect and punctilious hus-
band-for she had nothing on earth to do with
herself. Lying was perhaps as profitable an
occupation society" gave her
At any rate, Becky's fabrcative nature rnado
1t very natural for her to get into difficulties
with other men than her adored husband 'Sbe
leads them on till they lose their heads Then
she gets frightened and says she's insulted" So
no one had any objections TO make when Clyde
Fitch combined her lying propensties with her
innocent firtations and turned out his best play
his nearest approach to genuine high comedy
THE Truth" And everybody at the Adelphi
last night eminently Satisfied with the wit
and observation of the play, as well as the ex-
cellent acting and production that carried
them.
Winthrop Ames' revival is an excellent ex-
ample of what a careful marager may do toward
giving play every essential help in atmosphere
as we'll as acting. The set of the first two acts
Becky's drawing room in New York, was lux
urious, yet tasteful. The room in the boarding
house, with its talking machine and frylng-pan
clock, It's gaudy pictures and cheap ornaments
was perfect bit of realism at the opposite
extreme.
The acting, moreover was not confined to the
star. Madeleine Meredith, as an insane bunch
of feminine nerves. Frank Goldsmith, being as
caddish is consistent with reality: Norman
Trevor, fine and solid an English actor of
masculine" parts as the husband was obtuse in
his alteration; Albert Brown. in the bravura
part of Becky's lying father and Helen Remer &
as the boarding house lady took Fitch's play
with the verve and assurance that such comedy
demands.
As for Grace George, she as hardly done any
thing better She her own pretty and
polite self-and much more. 1t is not an easy
part. Feminine lying is either ludicrous or i'm
possible in most actresses hands. Miss George
made every speech, every littlest fb a natural,
inherent part of Becly's personality. Some she
told with thoughtless abandon, hardly dis
covering that they were lies before her hearers
did. Other and graver fractures of the social
peace she accomplished with quiet little cal
culation that barely showed in her eyes and her
tone AS TO words of honor-which Becky dis
tributed generousy-there Miss George gave us,
In her momentary hesitation, the catch of her
voice, the energetic reaction from the plunge,
just the needed sense that at bottom Becky was
more lied against by her uneugeHcal ancestors
than lying. 1t was distinct mpersonation full
of the truth as well the grace. that moves
Miss George a notch higher as one of our few
skilled comediennes
AS for the play, after these eight or ten years
the chief impression behind a keen appreciation
Of its observant sparkle and its fund OF witty
analysis, is the pity that it little too
early for its audience. The American playgoer
has only recently acquired the necessary taste
for humorous dissection OF life. for the bitter
sweet OF human comedy. Even now, perhaps,
are little worried by the strain of taking the
play neither OF the things into which IT might
so readily fall-the sordid the merely farcical
In the proper mood, however, the mood Miss
George dictates. The Truth" is NOR delightful
than oscar Wilde ever imagined even the most
artistic of lying,