Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-02-09
The THEATRE
Shaw Talks on Talking
For Mrs. Campbell

Tor WIS. OdnpDell
N his old age shaw has got his public
80 Far educated up to his earlier work
and his latest dramas so far popularizod
down TO the public that they meet on an
even basis OF mutual and complete satis-
faction. such as greeted "Pygmalion" at
ihe Broad last night. In the present case
Shaw has achieved something very like
work Of that great compromiser OF
Ideas and popularity, Arnold Bennett.
The general impression is surprisingly
like Bennett. Here is a clever plot quite
rs odd and original as that Great Ad-
venture which made an artist enjoy the
obseuuies over his supposed demise This
Is about n professor Of phonetics who
earns his living turning lower class per-
sons into the linguistic equivalents OF mo-
blity He takes a flower girl off the
streets. teaches her ito talk beautifully,
like lady In a shop" and passes her
or, on a bet, as n fashionable guest at
duchess garden party. All this. to the
tune Of explanations of THE divine gift
OF articulate speech" the 100 distinct
vowel sounds, and the professors firm be-
lief that he is "hlling UP the deepest gulf
that separates class from class and soul
from soul"
when II comes to the characterization,
the parallel is almost perfect. Professor
Higgins, rather like an impetuous baby
taking notice eagerly and loudly" with
q manner varying from genial bullying
when no is In good humor to stormy petu-
lance when anything goes wrong" Is al
most the other self of the bashful painter
IN THE Great Adventure"
Yet sPygmalion" is Shaw all the same.
II Is studded. even in its least Shavlan
portions, with such things as ut is time
10 think of the future when there is no
future to think Of" And it has two long
speeches from an ash man that are quite
I'm the old vein. This father of the girl
experiment is cne of the "undeserving
poor and glad OF it. He can't afford
morals himself; In others he finds them
Just an excuse for not giving him any
thing He blackmails the professor out
of fve-pound note. and frankly ex-
poets to drink II UP in a carouse with
the woman who, he regrets to say, he
can't "get hold over because she won't
marry him. 1t is only when the will OF
an eccentric American millionaire has
made him lecturer in the Moral Re
Form Society OF the World that he Is de
ivered into the hands Of middle class
morality 1t is all characteristic and
delightful Shavlan ralllery at conven-
tional morality, one of his idea-ful little
monologues. Most unfortunately, Ed
rnund Gurney forgets that IL Shaw is
talking straight TO the audience, the actor
at least might pretend he isn't.
But there lis something else quite In
che vein of the old Shaw. And that Is the
ending, when the girl Eliza and the pro-
fessor fight out In verbal duel the rights
of their relationship. She wants kindness
and attention, even love. He Is through
with his experiment and cares nothing
whether she goes or whether she stays
on at the same terms to fetch his slip
pers. The two batter out their points of
view In the brilliant old way OF the early
Shaw
II "Pygmalion" is not the best of Shaw,
It is miles above Bennett 1t is far more
full-bodied. 1t has finer intellectual val
ises and richer mental perspective. 1t IS
worked out with more of dramatic crafts
manship. The scene where Eliza takes
her first social plunge at the house of the
professors aunt is the most ingeniously
and heartily amusing scene of comedy in
many years. 1t gains, of course, from
Mrs. Campbelps playing, that quality of
automaton that she puts into the voice.
the terrifying halt before each perilous
III" But the substance itself Is what
counts. the inherently comic contrast Of
the cultivated, IL uncertain, voice drop |
ping the most impossible of uncultivated |
anecdotage. 1t is genius.
Mrs Campbell's whole lmpersonation is |
that. To look the young flower girl is
no small feat, but the shadings of &C
cent In which she carries II forward is
something OF real art. First, the thick |
cockney in the voice and the stolid talk
ativeness in the manner. Then the forced
precision. of the first public exhibition.
After that a slight relapse in intonation
IS she grows angry and quarrels. Through
It all, even iii the smoothest of talk at the
end. the eternal evidence of the tongue
she first learned A delightful perform
ance in a delightful play.