The Washington herald., 1916-04-09

lCopyrisht, sl6l
The Washington Square Players have
presented q new program Of four small
plays In their little theater In Fifty
seventh street, East, and. say what one
viii for or against the exhibitions them
selves have demonstrated once again
that the playhouse which they inhabtt Is
very probably the mostA interesting In
stitution theatrical at the moment visi-
bic IN New York. From the manner In
to the conduct Of the ushers while the
curtain Is up, from the dressing Of the
stage to the direction OF those perform
ing upon It, this theater, In the hands
OF what Broadway alludes to as mere
amateurs, Is more attractiyeiy and satis-
factorily managed than nine-tenths OF
the pompous masQue boothssto the west
ward
The eicerones OF the little theater have
indeed carried themselves well. consider
ing this and that They are zestful
lot, their minds seem gracefully empty
Of the yellow-backed banalities which so
clutter the skulls OF many Of their SEN
their spirit Is one OF Quickstep and prog
ress- And II some OF the plays they have
selected to produce seem not nearly so
good as other plays easily within reach
that they might have produced, let Il be
recalled In their favor that they have but
lately begun to find themselves and that
while finding themselves. they have at
least done nothing Of so vaudeville an
order OF commonplaceness as have the
professional impresarios Of the briefer
dramaturgy before them
In the current bill, the players have
given proscenium hearing to Zoe Atkins,
a young woman OF the Middle West
whose play, Papa" tickled bookmen by
the thousand. but whose talents our
White Light theatrical dealers have not
thus far seen 1T to invoke Miss Atkins
Is an interesting writing mind. There is
to II the Continental flavor. Papa"
might almost have been written by
Schnitzler himself. Her effort observable
upon the Bandbox stage-It is called THE
Magical City''-is in no sense to be COM
pared with this Papa" yet this second
EFFORT has still a manner, a touch To be
described as free verse rendering after
fashion, OF the theme OF Eugene Wal
ter's Easiest Way the play suffers
chiefly from a somewhat halting mag
nation at the critical points In its
phraseology and evolution. Yet, as its
virtues, It boasts a directness and
treatment unaduIterated with Sunday
school notices. The curtain lifts on
studio whose great windows sweep out
toward Madison square bathed in the
noon glow. In the amber lighted room
hung with heavy purples, sits Petronelle,
who to the tune OF the hurdy-gurdies has
danced out Of the slums to the Broad
way stage. Now a creature Of fine
satins, this PetroneIle's name has been
linked with that Of a certain rich man,
though this scandal has not availed to
diminish the love for her Of dream
ing poet boy. So the triangle. The end?
A shot The certain rich man dead with
lonely Petronelle-who loved him better
after all than she loved her poor young
Cobweb splnner-sobbing over his pros
trate body. The boy-the scandal hushed
by the dead mans brother-being led
quietly, blindly to a far-speeding train.
This, the not particularly new story of
Miss Akins' Observation-Disclosures, you are
golden fairy" paeans the boy, whose
enchanted palace is Gotham-and here in
the Magical City on the vine at its case
ment windows blooming at dusk, love
like q moonfower blows whittier against
the dark than lilies In sunlit gardens in
the green and quiet country" It Is the
treatment, of course. rather than the
overly bald theme that here commands
the attention. The little play iS exceed
ihgly well put on.
OF the other pieces The Age OF
Reason" bit OF a satirical comedy by
Cecil Dorian, IS the most dlverting. Its
tale Is Of a small youngster, who sets
about handling the divorce problem of
her parents and who, when finally she
has succeeded in reuniting them by pro-
yoktng a keen jealousy in the breast Of
the male. turns to the audience with
confidential smile and observes Aren't
they childrenP'
Pierre Pateltn," adapted and con-
densed from a French piece OF the
fifteenth century by Maurice Relonde,
and a short drama called Children" by
Guy Bolton and Thomas Carlton, make up
the balance Of the evening. The latter
is a rather crude melodramatio stage fable
recounting the manner in which an aged
negress shoots dead her son to save him
from the bloodhounds who. already bark
ing outside the door OF the shack, have
hunted him down for the yengeful
whites. "Patelin" is Of interest mainly as
a relic OF another theatrical day. A
favorite OF William Winters eighth
Gallo great-grandfather's day, the farce
was, several centuries later, played, in
altered grab, in London and also in
altered grab. imported to this country
sometime around 1900. Truth to tell, there
is not much in it to get excited about at
this day.
The acting OF these various pieces by
the Players is, in general, quite satisfac-
tory. One or two of the ladies OF the
company display a marked tendency to
overdo things, but by and large the work
OF the performers is creditable. The
scenic establishment OF each Of tho four
plays has been nicely thought out
Elizabeth Marbury's latest activity
theatric assumes the shape Of a music
show by Lawrason Riggs and Cole Por-
ter entitled See America First, So and
displayed upon the Maxine Elliott
theater's platform. The Messrs. Riggs
and Porter are college lads out Of Yale
university. and their currently audible
and endeayor possesses all the earmarks