Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-02-15
'THE TWO VIRTUES"
HAS ONLY ONE FAULT
And That Is Sothern's Shakes
perean Interpretation of a
Stage Literary Man"

THE TWo VIRTUES. A comedy In four acts
~ Alfred sutro. Adelrhl Theatre.
SSaudS rgu,Tl9c rgrl9lc M MT SotReT
Nirs. Gmldford. ,...... Mise Alexandra CarsIl
Lady Mnlisan. sister Of ieGsry ,iPgiqton; 49,.
Mrs Iervolse. ~....Mlss Pauline whitsoi
Rayiiisr. rN''' Ns' rtb,r Et3bngnS v iukIs XII
Mary, ;....,,.,.... .... Miss Frances SommCr
I'M Rst ILMR7SSo dmiSfEoirSd,s iSREiSd on in hRiSS' cheRisSa
AT lliLJegory Panton's House on Campder
Hi'' ACT lV-Mrs' dulldford's in Chelsea
Prior to the arrival of "The Two vir.
tues" at the Adelphi last night word got
round somehow or other that Alfred
! Sutro's latest was a thesis play, or at
| any rate n thesis comedy 1t was gener-
ally supposed that or the two virtues.
charity and chastity. Mr. Sutro let his
| hero stick TO the old dictum about the
| greatest OF these. More than that, his
| hero was supposed to call on one OF
| them" and instead Of merely inducing
| her to give up the husband OF n former
| sweetheart, TO end by marrying the de-
| lightful creature himself. And not be-
| cause she was Fascinating in her odious
! illeEitimntc way" Which is a good deal
Of n thesis for the British comedy OF
Sutro, Chambers Maugham, Davies ct all
And with that idea wandering through
n critics head. It was natural enough to
expect n pretty poor plot, pretty poor
comedy and n generally tlresome even
ing. Not because n thesis is n hora-far
from Il. But thesis has way of show
ing up the artificial Stiffness OF English
comedy writer's who wander after it out
Of their depth. Badly handled as It usu-
ally is, the thesis Is fascinating by com
parison with It's play.
And now you can see why IL was n two
edged surprise to find that there wasn't
any thesis at all. The lady began with
quite an interesting reputation, but before
the evening was over Mr.. Sutro had dis
infected it so thoroughly that it was
little hard to understand just why the
hero's sister kept on lodging accusations
and Just why the lady thought them
serious enough to try to sever all con-
nectlons with him. But, of course if they
hadn't kept 1t up there couldn't have been
n fourth actor even three of them.
Tn spite of the excess Of formaldchyde,
the surprise of no thesis was compensated
for hy what was, on. the whole, an anus
ing comedy. 1t was especially amusing
when Haidee Wright was adding her
capital comedy voice and her even more
amusing shadngs to the really deightful
part of the hero's sister And Alexandra
Carlislc's eternal ability for bits of
pathos as well as arch high-Comedy must
not he forgotten.
Under ordinary circumstances the vir-
tues of MIR. Sutro's comedy might have
been added to by the typical 'literary
is sure fire nowadays. What a chance |
he gives the cultured playwright to get
off his intellectual playfulness! No mat |
ter what his speciality is-even If he |
writes histories of historians, as did the |
present speCimcn-he Is just ChoCk full of |
clever little artticialities about the most |
serious dramatic crises. He is never |
serious for n moment. Sophistication puts |
on the mask of Silly ASS and says all the |
very smartest things that nobody but a |
playwright would ever think of. II isn't |
real Characterization, Of course, but 1t ,
does produce the dearest, quaintest, most |
exquisite creature" and a goodly bunch /.
of laughs.
The only trouble with the literary Smart
Alec of The Two Virtues" was that T.
II. Sothern played him in every vein but
the right one. the vein which the hero
recognizes himself when he says, I'm
eccentric and like to have people think
I'm fool" Mr.. Sothern played his clev-
erisms so seriously, unconscously and |
slowly that the gay court fool of the in.
telectual life turned into something much |
nearer the malapropos idiot of the country
village. And every now and then he
burst into heavy forced violence just as
out of ksS ing with the part
All in all in his farewell" production |
Of modern comedy, Mr., Sothern gave an
excellent selection from his familiar
repertory. He did his
for the violent comedy, and
mis- Jacques-stuff for, the sentiment For
getting entirely his more appropriate
Benedicll he gave the chippercst lines in
the Macbeth manner. And he measured
It all out in the slow and arbitrarily ac-
2ented fashion that we used to think was
such good reading of blank verse Now
we know better, It's playacting
*. NJ.