The Washington times., 1914-07-14
AT THEA TIERS THIS WEEK
COLUMBIA

Just as a fash of lightning disperses
excessive humidity in microscopic bits.
so the Girl In Waiting" which the Co.
lumbia Players produced last night,
caused the spontaneous combustion of an
atmosphere of doubt and indecision that
has enveloped confirmed playgoers for
some seasons past. 1t proved ]. Hart
ley Manners TO be the high priest and
chief missionary of the great order Of
feminists that is sweeping the world
with its philosophy. to a greater degree
than he is a playwright. And this
doesn't mean that Mr.. Manners play
wrighting ability should be underesti-
mated either. There has been no doubt
as TO the unique appeal OF the Man
ners plays-but an analysis Of them IN
a laboratorical way has heretofore been
battling. And this is the reason: Mr..
Manners great object in lie seems TO
be to convince humanity through tho
medium Of the play that the eternal
comedy feminine Is not So Sosh-hanged
eternal after all. He has emancipatei
the simple. bread-and- outter-shall we
call it bone-head ?-comedy heroine. The
simplicity had reached a state where it
was just a bit curdled. The long con-
tinued use of the bread-and-butter
type had rendered 1t stale and ran
Clio, ana lNS DCfle-nedOeOn6SS was
maddening. So J. Hartley Manners
has come to the rescue. The distinction
between his and the thereotyped hero
ines might compare TO the differences
between the terms feminine and female
just about.
The production of The Girl in Wait
ing" by the Columbia Players, up to
which all this has been leading, is also
evidence OF the fact that no matter how
much the playwright might yearn to
dramatiZe an idea or what originality he
might utilize in drawing his characters,
1t is absolutely essential for him to
have men and women Of intelligence to
interpret his writings. And Mr..
Manners could find few companies bet
ter qualified for the job than the COM
pany at the Columbia. While all the
diverse elements of the play were ca
pably handled there were three of them
that seemed to stick out a bit more
than any of the others-the
Girl, the Man, and the Father of. the
Girl
Dorothy Bernard is continually max
ing US sorry that We haven't seen her
do all of the sprightly ingenue things
that we have heretofore thought others
did exceedingly well. She seems to do
those We have seen just a little bet
ter. Perhaps II is because she has an
original method, perhaps II is because
she is putting more spirit and more
real girl into them. Her Girl is of
piece with the other excellent things
she has done-maybe q little more ex-
cellent. A H. Van Buren, as George
Hemmins. the man with a leaning
toward criminals, has something to do
entirely outside his usua! line Of stand
ard leading man business-and he does
it well. He made the pattern by orig
mating the character in the first pro-
duction OF the piece and he ought to
know how to do II. AS the Father of
the Girl, Everett Butterfield has one
OF the most carefully studied and ar
tistically conceived character parts he
has ever done before a Washington au-
dience And this is about as far as we
can go, because Mr.. Butterfeld has
done a great many very good things
here.
The others in the cast were so well
up to the high standards that were set
by the three that have been picked out
Tor special mention that II was neces-
sary for those three TO be exceptional
in order to merit extra consideration,
The settings and production, as usual,
were .heir own commentator of the
work of Stage Director Richie and
Scene Painter Squires-the prologue in
the rain being especially ard unusually;
effective. This, by the way, is half
missed by late corners. as the curtain
is raised On the opening of the piece
with unusual promptness this week.
GARDNER MACK.