Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-09-02
EXPERIENCE" HAS
COME TO TOWN
Mueh-H -Heralded Morality Play Receives
Warm Reception at Adelphi
Theater


Messrs. William Elliott, F. Ray Com
stock and Morris Gest call Experience
the most wonderful play in America.
They ought to call themselves the most
wonderful showmen in America" That
would be nearer the truth. For the most
interesting thing about George V. Hobarts
morality play of today" is not the play
or its platitudes or its people; it is the
rare skill with which Il has been handled
from production onward. Its success-a
success which has been miraculous-has
been built upon a recognition Of the plays
worth to a certain class of audience, and
upon deliberate and elaborate campaign
to interest that class. A popular price, big
advertising, handsome lithography, gigan-
tic signs, special performances for min
listers with costly and excellent refresh
ments have made II possible for the man.
agement of the piece now at the Adelphi TO
print proudly the words mine months In
New York, seven months in Chicago, and
five mo- IS In Boston"
It has not been a campaign of bunk.
II has been a busncsslike matter OF sell
Ing Experience" to the people who want
it. Any review which merely attempts to
prove its writer's superiority to the morals
and the mentality of MIR. Hobart. ignores
its genuine and ultimate justification.
Experience" Is written of course, on
an old, old formula, almost as old as the
church. 1t gives us popular and accepted
moral message through figures of every
qualities such as Youth Love, Slander, Am
bition Crouch and Snob. It Is also adj
dicted to the old, old notion that Beauty
is as damnable as Deceit and that Pleas
ure Is "the stain of last nights wine on
the table cloth"
This newest specimen of the sandwich
board drama Is therefore no better or no
worse than its much-lauded progenitor
"Everyman," so far as platitudes go, how
ever far below It Mr. tIobart's piece may
n hn nrt pf t,st etA tnrlfg
language. IL is miles atSve "Everywoman."
1t is better entertainment. "Elverywoman"
rejoiced in five "canticles" full of terribly
blank verse. Experience" is satisfied with
10 episodes" of good old prose- Some
times 1t Is fake-poetc: sometimes Il out
vampires Fox's own Theda Bara and talks
about Passion as the Queen Regent of Hell
and the High Commissioner from his
Satanic Majesty; but mostly It Is decently
expressive. "Everywoman" never got with
in miles of reality. Experience" has n lot
of humor and a lot of humanness to 1t. when
1t Isn't too busy firmly and loudly declalm-
ing the multiplication table.
On the technical side, this long and
elaborate play is at the worst adequate.
The settings are necessarily the sort that
can be shifted easily and quickly, but they
serve. The lighting is mostly the glary old
kind, but occasionally--in the cocaine re-
sort, for instance-lt is new and richly
imaginative: giving up the footlights for
oNerHedu Illumination Denlnu Bauze, III
achieves n fine sense of drear and desolate
evil. The dozens of small parts are taken
we'll in almost every instance, and their
effectiveness is greatly enhanced by tho
minute care which the producer has ex-
pended on teaching each player a bodily
movement characteristic of his name
But the finest thing in the whole pro-
duction is the work of a single actor.
Ernest Glendinning as Youth Is superb. He
plays with poetry and humor. He drives
home the obvious points and spends in
finite finesse on shadings of emotion. His
best moment is when Youths deep and
true emotion for Love rises through his
drunkenness. Mr.. Glendinning keeps every
accent OF intoxcation; yet the exaltation
of love and the misery of his fall shine
through. Mr.. Glendlnning is the final
stroke of astute management. X NJ.