Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-11-14
LAURETTE TAYLOR
ACTS SUPERBLY
Rare Piece of Naturalism in
Hartley Manners's Worthy
New Play at Broad


curious piece Very serious--and
witty Natural-and fun " ideai2lngs.
Perhaps a cross between Galaworthy and
Cosmo Hamilton. And even more miles
above peg o My Heart than was The
woong Of Eve"
Maybe that is the easiest approach to a
difficult subject; who would suspect the
Hartley Manners Of that Anglo-Irish laugh
and-sigh affair OF being the Hartley Man
ners of The Harp OF Life? The new
play at the Broad has score Of fresh
virtues. IL has wit instead of Jokes, OBJ
servaton instead of an eve for the theatcr,
characters instead OF stock figures many,
many small details IN word action and
business which make an effect of genuine
reality.
Back Of this, still more remarkably Is a
sincere interest In some of the problems
that every one meets i'm life. 1t takes itself
out not alone IN serious. finely felt refec-
tions on the beauty OF maternity and the
dangers and opening joys Of young man
hood; II also dictates a plot to illumi-
nate these things, II shows us a youthful
mother who at tlirty-siX has kept the
comradeship Of her son Of nineteen, but
who finds herself losing II as he becomes
involved in an infatuat!on for a demi-
mondaine. She had taught him the beauty
of motherhood, but she left to a diffident
duu pFOCIaSlndtlnE tatncr inc teaCnlnH OF
the bitter things of life. Now, when he IL
ready to marry a Mrs. Narona, many years
his senior, and the lady, touched by love
at last is looking to him for deliveranCe
from sin, 1t is the mothers part to fight for
his young happiness. She asks the woman
20 tell the boy all OF her life, and agrees
to sesign him IL he still clings to his love.
The woman tells and the boy still loves
But the woman learns from the mother
and sends him back to her.
The last is hardly well enough estab-
! lished, but the story serves in general to
| carry home Mr.. Mannerss thoughts and
| emotions. In spite of the fact that every
| speech is turned with thoughtful and profit
able care, at times the handling seems a
| bit wordy. The restraint of il is admirable
As for the acting, IT is n well-nigh perfect
! cast Philip Merivale. the crotchetty father
| Dion Titheradge, the impulsive, fne-struns
| son; Frank Kemble Cooper. the urbane
| and sophisticated friend of the family
| Miss Lynn Fontaine, the spirited girl who
| loves the boy: Sara Biala, the hard-voioed
| intense demimondaine, only Ffolliot Paget
| as the young girls narrow mother, is ou
| of the picture her comedy is too broad
the woman is cynically stupid, not stupidity
| funny.
As the mother of the boy, Laurette Taylo
| sets herself a newer and a higher mark II
| the American theater. In THE Wooing o
| Eve" she showed herself a coincidence o
| real naturalism, in contrast to the arcl
| and hammered minXes Of the footlights II
| THE Harp of Life" she is ever as natural
| ever as true in gesture, voice and mood 4
| the everyday simplicity of most of us ; bu
she is also genuinely and knowingly dra
matte. Pathos. tragedy and exaltation com
| forth from the reality of half-eXpresse
| things. Sobs, smiles, intonations brea
| with the break of our constrained an
| untheatrcal day Miss Taylor hasn't mas
| tered this difficult task to its utmost per
| fection. But she has gone further with
| than any native actress except Mrs. Fiskt
| And all in a bare two years. In THE Har
| Of Life" the actress and the playwright
have both made phenomenal progress.
X NJ.