The Washington herald., 1916-01-11
Pennsylvania Dutch Open
Fallow Field for Drama
Marian de Forest Has Accom-
plished Interesting Feat in
Transferring Mrs. Martin S
Fanatical Religionists to
Stage-Mrs. Fiske in Title
Role of 'Erstwhile Susan"
Paints Whimsical Picture
of Eccentric Individualist.
BY JULIA CHANDLER. eMANz,

BY JULIA CHANDLER. (MANz)
OF all the comedies have ever seen
there is none so quaint. humorous, and
delightful in character delineation as
''Erstwhile Susan" which came to US last
evening at the New National Theater with
Mrs Fiske in the title role.
For a number of years Helen R. Martin
has been giving US. between magazine
and book covers, refreshing stories of the
Pennsylvania Dutch, embracing various
religious sects scattered through Pennsyl-
vania, of which none was more vivid in
its local color, nor more appealing in
its human element than "Barnabetta, I"
from which Marian de Forest has
fashioned the new comedy of character
which gives to the stage a completely
novel field that Is rich in its yield Of
entertainment.
With the rise of the first curtain the
auditor is plunged at once into the at
mosphere of the old Dutch region of
Pennsylvania, and introduced to an ad-
herent of the New Mennonite creed In
the person of Barnaby Dreary who, with
his sect, believes that woman was ere
ated to drudge for, the creature COM
forts of her lord and master.
Having buried two wives Barnaby de-
cides to take unto himself a third; and
seeks the services OF a matrimonial
agency 10 dSslSI MS purpose. JulleI MIL
Ter. "Erstwhile Susan Miller of Cedar
Center, Iowa, an individualist of altruistic
tendency having seen Barnabetta, (the
frail little daughter whose shoulders are
bearing the full burden of Dreary's s
household with its never ceasing exac-
tions of labor and self-repression, de-
cides to become the wife OF Dreary that
she may open the door of Barnabetta' s
cage and give her wings a chance
As preposterous as the matrimonial al
lance seems to Juliet's protesting friend
and lawyer. David Jordan, she does not
swerve from her determination; has an
interview with the crusty, penurious. OBJ
stinate and ignorant Mennonite, and, for
the sake of mothering Barnabetta, mar
ries him.
The second act finds Juliet (she has
assumed Juliet for "euphonious reasons'D
in the bosom OF her adopted family; her
fastidious soul winning in her fight
against the cave-man instincts of her
husband toward the female of the spe-
cies; her philosophical mind and keen wit
reveling in the humor of the situation,
while her glib tongue reels of poetry
that falls like pearls before the swine.
In winning the faith of the suspicious.
shrinking Barnabetta the new wife
makes slow progress, however, princi-
pally because the girl has been made by
her father to believe that she mus,
marry a clout of his sect or leave home,
as he is unwilling to keep two women to
drudge for him. But in the end Barnaby
is sufficiently humanized to permit
Juliet,-alias Susan,-to send Barnabetta
to Boston to school, and so far obliges
the purposes of the story as to fall off
a roof and break his neck, thus relieving
the household of its chief stumbling
block to the niceties of life, while leavins
a million to be divided between Susan
and his children which Is done despite
the efforts of Barnaby's son Jacob to
saddle Susan with bigamy by dragging in
an unhappy, but harmless, incident of
her former life in far-away Iowa.
And the final curtain finds Susan Miller
with her purpose accomplished, for Bar
nabetta has found the light of both edu-
cation and love. and her benefactor for
saking the eccentric costumes which she
has assumed with other affectations of
individualism, for a modern frock which
better conforms to the splendid new So
cial position she has created for the girl
over whom her heart so yearns.
While the story OF "Erstwhile Susan"
is one which holds the sympathetic at
tention of an audience. 1t is in the types
of character which the play presents; the
philosophy which threads its way through
the three acts. the satirical touch which
Mrs. Fiske gives to the uncongenial con-
ditions Susan creates in her own life;
the fine flashes of humor. and the novelty
OF the environment. that interest us most.
for Marian de Forest has accomplished
a splendid feat in transferring Mrs. Mar
tins fanatical religionists to the stage,
and plunging into their midst the poetic,
altruistic, eccentric and refreshing Susan
Miller, in the INSTALLATION of whom Mrs.
Fiske finds ample opportunity for all the
lights and shadows of her exquisite art
lof comedy Her characterization Is as
delightful a study as any she has ever
given the theater. touched with a brush
that deftly blends whimsicality with seri-
BUSINESS, and accentuates the idiosyn-
cracies of the character she portrays.
In typifying the Mennonites, and the
iron hand with which they rule their
homes and reduce their women folk to
slavish servitude, John Cope makes the
character OF Barnaby Dreary, the Dutch
tinsmith, stand out with cameo-like
clearness, accomplishing mastery
Characterization that would leave the
picture of the religious sect for which
he stands an indelible one, even If 1t
were not supported by the excellent
character portrayals furnished by Robert
Stowe Gill as Jacob Dreary, Owen
Mech as the younger son, and John
Daily Murphy as Abel Buchter, the self
satisfied son Of the hotelkeeper, who as
pires to keep company" with Barna-
BETA, while Madeleine Delmar imbues
her conception of the frail little house
hold drudge with the pathos necessary
to elicit the sympathies of her auditors
from her first appearance until she is
happy and safe in the arms of her law
yer chap, who is ably impersonated by
our friend Edward Robins, one-time head
of the Columbia stock company Of this
city
The minor roles are all in capable
hands, and the one setting showing the
living-room of Barnaby Dreary sustains
the local color of this unique comedy of
character which opens a new and fallow
field for dramatic exploitation, and marks
the debut of Corey Williams-Rite Com
pany, Incorporated.