The sun., 1916-08-28
new ENGLISH FARCE
STRIVES TO PLEASE
"a Little Bit Of Fluff Comes
TO Thirty-ninth Street With
London Company.
PLAY Is CRISP AT TIMES
The Philandering Husband
Again Appears as the
PrOtagOnist.
"a Little Bit Of f1uR"-at the Thirty.
ninth street Theatre.

"A Little Bit Of Flur." by Walter
Ellis, Is "a London product that was
revealed to its first audience In this
country at tho Thirty-ninth Street The
a,re on Saturday night. 1t Is a little
farce OF the very best intentions. In
deed, 1t must be admitted that "A Little
BIZ OF Fluff strives to please from
It's first word to Its last. II 1t does
not always succeed the effort Is there.
and unluckily It is always obvious. II
Mr.. Ellis had not wandered so far in
search OF farcical material and his in
terpreters had not labored so xealously
the new piece would have won a warmer
greeting from the first night gathering.
That the author has not departed
from the formalized phraseology of this
sort of play some of the speeches will
show. ''You will" lays the wife. in
vestigating the ph!landering husband
by interviewing his friend. please
not interrupt when he Is endeavorinE
10 save himself by explanation. ITS
gone seven now" he has the chance TO
say later, "and they may be here n
minute" Number three II almost even
more familiar. Then. who am I sup
posed to be now: 49, s~oliloQuizes the hero.
20 establish the British origin Of the
rlay one quotation is enough. II be-
leve.' one character observes. that
women should he mastered" 'Oh. no."
Is the answer, "I don't like women with
mustard Perhaps II was not exactly
Ike this. but 1t was not much better.
The Gay Husband Again.
By way Of corroborativo detail. there
was the specimen OF American slang
.,g,ha,, N,,h,.l a., n,t,l.h far,o ~ tIn.
day Is complete. This one was of earlier
vintage than the majority that drift
hack here to be heard over the foot
lights. .She will get it, the embodi-
ment Of youthful saye,y and beauty In
tho play remarked. lin the neck. where
the chicken got the axe" The naive
conviction of the young woman that
she was saying something irresistibly
,o0,, a.Uios; moved :ac audience 20 =
snile.
~ a certain gay husband had not
spent "A Lively evening in "A suppe club.
cme home in the morning and brought
with him a pearl necklace which IA rajah
had given to his companion--if these
things had not happened "a Little Bit
If Fluff would never have existed. As
Y was, there was "A mighty n that
sprang from this we'll tried acorn. The
appropriation of the necklace by the
wife, the rajah's demand for Its return.
the effort to get damages for n bus
accident to raise money for more pearls
these were some of the incidents that
came to the eye in tho turning OF the
kale .dosc0pe during the three acts.
Generally Good Acting.
There was every promise OF crisp and
lively farce in the first act. but the Sec
ond Jagged far behind 1t. The same ma
torial was used in too many different
forms. The butter was spread too thin,
There was a much more entertaining
series Of incidents in the last act, but
they were all too physical to win again
the ,nteres, Of the audience. SO afte,
all ~ Little Bit of Fluff' was not more
than mildly arpusing.
There was little ground for complaint
II the acting beyond the lack OF dist!nc'
lion which II as a whole revealed. AR
thur Chesney, who was the husband
played occasionally with real fnish and
humJr. in "A vein OF comedy FAR indeed
above the usual level of II play. Charles
Garry Was his suffering friend. While
not a~lluring in appearance. II may be
that his r~rotesqueness added to ~
humor If the scenes in which he APP
peared. Meta Westcott made the wife
a genuinely beautiful brunette. Margo'
Kelly. who might be said to have tht
title role of the play. was comedy also
Then her voice was certainly the mos
remarkable ever heard here. Yet thu
Speaking voice Of the American actor
Alice Chaplin played an old woman with
natural fun. Only the doctor was in
tOlerably amateurish.