New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-31
By Ralph Block

Selling ones birthright. or eating
ones cake and discovering that one
hasn't IT any more, or undergoing any
o'her OF these entertaining processes
which In the language of the past was
meant to teach the lesson OF the law
OF compensation. is as possible in the
theatre as it is anywhere else. /,
was difficult to tell, after a brief ad.
dress at the curtain By Mr.. Faversham
at the Thirty-ninth Street Theatre
last night-in which the hand of Mr.
George Broadhurst was discovered To
the audience in the making of Dion
Caithrop's play, "The Old Country
which one of these difficult feats Mr.
Favershsm had been trying to perform
The Old Country" is not the kind OF
play that would be awaited from the
hand of more or less unheralded
British playwright. It's humor is
much too immaculate, too well groomed
and too closely built TO the pattern OF
these parts TO have found its nativity
abroad, and it contains one act which
Is so neatly timed in its dramatic i'm
pact that of all the Britons only Pinero
or Jones could have put their hands
TO it's carpentry. There are, on the
other hand, round half dozen with
US who flourish so in matters of play
building who might have done it. and
the announcement Of Mr.. Broadhurst's
n IN -. - - A
TO occasion any surprise.
From the standpoint of Mr.. Broad
hurst, whose job it appears was to
make well play out of an ailing one.
The Old Country" ought 20 take its
place as job well done. But from
the standpoint OF Mr.. Faversham, it
may be questioned whether it is not
job too completely well done; wheth-
or in sharing with Mr.. Broadhurst the
cake the somewhat shadowy Mr.. CAL
throp set before him they have not so
or tlrely done away with il between
them that there is not even a crumb
OF u left 20 tempt the nostrils.
A brief excerpt from "The London
Daily Telegram" on the hoardings in
front OF the Thirty-ninth Street The
atre sets forth that 1.-THE Old Country"
IS play OF such delicate flavor, of such
fine and friendly humor, that it must be
recognized as needed sedative for the
nervousness of war time. But one must
look closely and Intentionally before
Mr.. Calthrop is thus discovered be
tween the lines of Mr.. Broadhurst. and
one regrets that Mr.. Calthrop could
not have been born with some OF Mr..
Broadhursts structural abilities added
70 those virtues of his own which would
have avoided this unique kind of col
laboration.
Mr.. faversham is now a wealthy
American of English nativity who has
returned TO the village OF his birth TO
punish the people who drove his
mother from them when he was born.
He has paved the way for his return
BY furnishing the village from top to
bottom with every gift in his COM
mand, and arrives TO a reception of
school children and villagers disguised
under the name of another native, now
dead. He falls in love with the school
mistress. buys up the manor house for
mis- mother, and in her presence fays
the vicar and the doctor who drove her
out, and with them the son of the
squire, whose debts have made pos
slDlc the Il Tic lndilois
II is an interesting scene, and Mr..
Faversham and his associates do not
lose any bit Of it, keeping it so care
fully modulated that it equals for force
any scene now being played IN New
York theatre. The climax, the discov-
cry that the present squire is his
father, may not have been entirely
strange TO the audience last night, that
scene in Bernstein's Israel where
the young nobleman discovers the duel
he is to fight is with MS own father,
having doubtless cleared the way. The
last act comes nearest 20 being what
one may imagine Mr.. Calthrop's view
OF the play must have been. being
chiefly a matter of understanding by
the hero that vengeance Is always DIT
ter and forgiveness sweet.
Mr.. Faversham adds TO his own act
ing that attractiveness of manner that
first brought him to the public. But
there are several other bits OF good
PLAYING, Miss Maud Milton as the
mother, who presents sorrow with
dignity the stage does not always give
il. and Miss Ceceie Radcliffe and Miss
Katherine Brook as two maiden aunts.
Edwin Cushman is a startlingly con-
yincing curate of an always startled
kind, and Russ Whytal plays with a
good deal OF understanding and deli
cacv the part Of the fsithless father Of
wears before. although it did seem TO
me at times his tears were more suited
to the part of the ruined maiden than
his own.
The settings are interesting and IN