New-York tribune., 1914-03-30
BILLIE BURKE in
A new FARCE
Jerry" Touches a High
Point of WOrthleSSneSs
and Futility.
oIerrv." A farce b. Catherine Chisholm
- --hn 1 vcntinn rheafre

olerrv." A farce b. Catherine Chisholm
cushing. The Lyceum Theatre.
TUE CAST.
loan Doubleday. bachelor maid.
Harriet townsend. her sister-in-law,
Jerry. Harriet's daughter by her frs,
husband ................ N...-..... BlNe Burke
Montague wade Joans hancee.. shelley Hull
isefer Tssg Joan's cousin....... Allan Po.lack
pr Kirk. The Doubleday physician, IT,.
e~irsr. the Doubleday butler Thomas REYNOLDS
f.TIs Non,y's chauffeur Bernard Thornton
BY ARTHUR RUHI.
Far he it from us TO break any butter
flies on the wheel but the new farce.
Jerry written by Catherine Chisholm
cushing for Miss Billy Burke and pro-
dyced Saturday evening at the Lyceum
Theatre. Is really almost too much.
At some desert army post. perhaps, on
"a .bio locked in the Arctic ice. for the
amateurs OF some suburb IN dramatic
club. il might answer we enough. But
,,hv with life as varied it is in such a
nlace as New York. should any sane
human being shut himself up in theatre
and pay money TO see such utter futlity
as this?
4 woman has been engaged to be mar
ried for twenty years. Her sister. OF
about her own age, has married twice
and has by her first husband a daughter
now about twenty years old, This is
Ierrl-. the cnfanf terrible. jerry is in love
with the man TO whom the older sister-in-
Jaw has 50 long been engaSed-the child S
mother. indeed. strongly fancied the same
gentleman at one time herself Then
there Is a silly ass Englishman, of the
familiar stage type, in love with the sis
ter-ir-law, and an unsuccessful suitor for
a generation or so.
Jerry having exhausted all other means
10 capture her sister-in-laws fiance, final
Is calls IN the society editor of The
Philadelphia Ledger" and announces IN
her fathers name that the older womans
engagenent is broken, and that the fam
ilv wishes now to announce her engage
nent 70 the Englishman. The embarrass-
nents that follow this performance result
happily for all concerned. The English
man gets the sister-in-iaw and Jerry gets
her somewhat seasoned Romeo. who dashes
into her chamber. after her farcical pre-
as she lies in bed tastefully arrayed in high
heeled slippers and pink pajamas. The
last We see of them-the young woman's
family having diScreety retired-is as
Jerry losses her pajamas over the screen
behind which she has skipped TO hop into
travelling suit, while her tardy lover,
now fully awakened. pounces on the gar
ments with the enthusiasm Of fanished
hound attacking a mutton chop.
Except for a few moments in the first
act when the plight Of the perpetual
fancee is first revealed, neither the char
scters nor the things they do resemble
any recognizable sort Of real life. The
banality and hippant cheapness Of the
dialogue is beyond all belief
Miss Burke is a pretty girl, as every
body knows. but neither she nor the
pretty dresses Of the first act. the man
nish riding clothes of the second, nor the
pajamas OF the third. can make much
headwav with the dreadful stuff that
Jerry is made 10 say. There is little
chance even If she were inclined TO take
II. to attempt any Of the more serious
acting which she has seemed BY way OF
working into in her recent plays. She re-
verts quite 10 her old manner. and wig
eles and wriggles away from beginning 10
end
The company is capable enough had
they anything to work with. The hand
some Miss Gladys Hanson brings distinc-
ton to the part of the sister-in-law and
does what may be done TO dull the com
monplacenes5 or her lines. Miss Alice
Johns plays the mother in her spirited
and emphatic, II somewhat obvious style.
The amiable Mr.. Lumsden Hare comes on
for moment as a doctor; Mr.. Allan Pol
lock is the silly ass Englishman, and sill
ler than need be, and Mr.. Shelley Hall
the unfortunate captured by Jerry.
II is, Of course, hard 10 be certain about
such things, bu- one feels fairly sure in
saying that Jerry" is worse, even, than
The Dear Fool"