The Washington herald., 1914-04-12
By JAMES 5. mETcALFE.

BY JAMES 3. METCALFE.
New York. April I-Here we are in
the dullest week OF the theatrical year.
unless We concede that the one preceding
Christmas can keep more people out of
the theaters than the week that includes
: Good Friday. The managers are more
= easily disheartened now than in Decem-
= Der. because they have already exhausted
, stheir energies and are not very keen to
make new productions with no New York
future except a short spring run with a
! possibility of holding through the sum-
mer with patronage depending upon the
vagaries OF the thermometer. In Easter
week there, will be some half-hearted
efforts to gain the attention of the public,
but from present indications this Is going
= to be season notable for its brevity.
= With all the gambling possibilities Of the
Estheatrical business. the odds against
making a winner are getting Longer /,
owing to the movies and other considera-
tons Managers are good gamblers, but
they are getting very wise to the TACT
that the chances against them are getting
stronger every day. Col. William A
Brady gave evidence of the fact when
he admitted in a speech before the Press
Club that he and his kind had been COM
PEELED to increase their newspaper adver-
o. tsing largely to make any impression at
all on the theatergoing public.
Again Lady windernere and Her
Fan.
Miss Margaret Anglin showed good
business sense when she gave New York
only a brief season OF Shakespeare and
then harked back to So good a modern
play as Lady Windermere's Fan" The
oscar Wilde drama Of English high So
ciety has not appreciably deteriorated
with age From the present-day point of
view il has its faults, notably the solilo-
quies,S but the construction of the play
on simple and direct lines is such as to
hold closely the attention of audiences.
most Of whose members are children of
these who saw Lady Windermere's
Fam in its first estate. In fact, Miss
Margery Maude, who plays the title part.
is the daughter Of Miss Winifred Emery.
who played Lady Windermere in the
earliest London production Of the play.
Miss Anglin naturally chose the role
of Mrs Erlynne for the display Of her
own powers And wisely she does not
, overdo it in an emotional way. In her
) Interpretation she has had the good
: sense to show that the woman who has
deserted her husband and child and for
! years has led the life Of declasee has
not much emotion left. Therefore Miss
j. Anglin makes Mrs. Erlynne brilliant
"a ly hard woman, who saves her daughter
from shame. not for any particularly soft
or sentimental motives, but because she
herself has played the game and knows
the value of responsibility. Miss Anghn
looked lust what one would expect Mrs.
Erlynne to be, delivered the lines IN
nroper fashion and in the emotional
Z scenes kept herself quite within limits
that would easily have been broken over
by a less experienced artist
In the support Mr.. Cyril Maude. per-
haps for sentimental reasons and per
haps in an educational way lent MS
daughter Margery to portray the chat-
: acter of Lady Windermere, which had been
% created by her mother in the original
London production. Miss Maude gave us
a sort of ingenue Lady Windermere, en- /
tirely possible in real life. but entirely !
lacking in its stage possibilities or force
and poise. What Miss Maude did with /
this important role was an excellent
demonstration of the fact that on the
stage It does not do to adhere too closely
TO trying 10 reproduce the real -- The
theater has to be artificial even in its
realism. and while a real Lady WindeE-
mere might quite we'll be such a person
as Miss Maude made her. for dramatic |
purposes there should have been more |
force and emotion. not carried. however.
to the point of tears and lace handker-
chiefs
The men in this revival are fairly salts
factory. although as demonstrating life |
in high English society they do not seem
to belong to the cast ( We're de We're. |
Mr. Arthur Byron as the fascinating Lord |
Darlington is manly and inCisive, but |
suggests the Middle West of America
rather than I ne West End of London. Mr..
De Cordoba as Lord Windermere gave
only a faint suggestion OF the British
nobility, although his performance was
smooth and well controlled. 1t is doubt
less the fault Of the late Mr.. Oscar
Wilde's fondness for the clever and witty
line. but when the other male charac-
ters were bandyinE the authors persiflage
there was an unavoidable suggestion of
the middle man in the minstrels pro- /
pounding conundrums to the other men,
bers of the dusky semicircle.
1t remains, though. that with its artistic
simplicity of construction and the clever
ness of its lines Lady Windermere's
Fan" even at this late day and in its