The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-10-09
ADJUSTMENTS
"PygmaliOn"

Mrs. Patrick Campbell, who appeared in Birmingham for the first time last night. at the Jefferson theatre. proved herself comedienne by playing the lead- ing role in d satirical comedy by George Bernard Shaw. Mrs. Campbell has been long associated with emotional parts and her fame, of course, rests chiefly on per formances of this sort, but 1t was indeed a great pleasure. as we'll as a novel ex- perience. to see her so apt in her DOT
 trayal of a typical London gutter -snipe, created in Shaw's whimsical vein. and
 lifted by freak of circumstance into what is presumably the haute monde thus giving free play to Shaws tendency to poke fun, tnged with satire, at things in general and English people in partic- ular.
 The title of the play suggests the agree ! able fate in store for Eliza Doolittle | flower vendor, who is made the subject of an experiment in phonetics and good manners by Henry Higgins, a gentleman l who blithely confesses that he has a hob- I by and makes a living by it. Professor 1 Higgins. who specalizes in phonetics and | hates conventonality, decides with the | friendly connivance of his friend, Colonel l Pickering, gentleman of means and | leisure, to transform Eliza into a lady and show his fine contempt for society's
 autocrats by foisting her upon them. | The play Is not as mordant as others l Shaw has written. nor as sparkling, and | is at times a trile dull and wordy, yet | is enlivened by those flashes of wit and
 the gift of paradox for which the author | is famous while the characters are | drawn with the skill and cleverness con- | spicuous in other Shaw plays. The sharp | contrast between Eliza and her worthy | father and the society in which they find | themselves affords opportunities for much delightful comedy and not little satire. Whatever sentiment there is in the play is rather suggested than emphasized, but in spite of the eccentricities of the irascible Professor Higgins and the sturdy inde- pendence of Eliza, even after she has received her polish, it is evident at the conclusion of the play that these two
 have found that they need each other | There is no outpouring of the soul-perisl
 the thoughti-and no mawkish sentimen. tality such as Shaw professes to abhor but the results amply justify the means and we are permitted the inference thai love has not entirely gone out of fashion | Mrs Campbell seemed quite as much at home in the role of a London flower | seller as she does in more ambitious and more exacting parts. She invested Eliza | Doolittle with all the quaintness the
 character demands, made her thoroughly | human and appealing and altogether on joyable. J. w. Austin, Professor Hig- gins, and Edgar Kent, as Colonel Pick ering, were both quite competent, while | Capt Cornwallis- West who has the good fortune to be Mrs. Campbells husband but has assumed the stage name of George Frederick" did a surprisingly good bit of acting as Alfred Doolittle The doughty captain has won his laurels elsewhere than on the stage, but shows l a gift for the mimetic art. The othel
 members of the company were in accort
 with the spirit and the motive of tho play.
 This afternoon Mrs. Campbell will play
 special matinee presenting one of hel
 greatest successes, ''The Second Mrs Tanaueray,' a drama too well known tc
 require extended mention, and one ir which full scope is given to her emo
 tional powers. The offering for tonight will again be "Pygmalion."