Evening star., 1917-01-16
ADJUSTMENTS
New National.

To be precise in a matter of time. it
was s:35 last night when Gillette, that
favorite actor, the ideal delineator of
picturesque composure. lit the cigar
which is his almost inseparable stage
companion. 1t Is a most significant
cigar. whose slender pillar of smoke is
the journey into the realms of fancy
II well and safely under way.
Up to this point not much had hap
pened in the new play provided for Mr..
Gillette by Miss Clare Hummer It's
title, "A Successful Calamity" is so
clearly paradoxical rs to constitute q
definite promise of comedy. The story
veers far away from the domains of
adventure and romance through which
Gillette has often proved so gallant
courier. To those who measure this
actor by his great and particular sue
cess the play must have suggested
Sherlock Holmes married and cured of
distressing addictions to the hypoder-
mic needle and the fiddle. He is now
in circumstances of sedate opuience.
and seeks only the bliss of the domestic
fireside-a bliss which has been denied
flim because of the interminable social
whirl in which he is involved. The
charming woman TO whose fatigulng
gaietieS he has lent his loyal COM
panionship, as played by Estelle Winwood.
mination TO claim her. not only as a
wife. but as an intimate associate Of
the domestic circle. Our hero relapses
but once into the use of narcotics, and
this time purely by accident.
II is 4 chance remark by the fine old
family servant. played by William
DevereauX, that sets the fashion
weary Henry Wilton thinking. People
of humber circles are obliged to dine
together and spend their evenings at
home because they are poor. Henry
porders on this information, and, prac-
Tical man of action that he is, proceeds
without delay to turn it to useful ac-
count. He tells all the members of his
family that he is ruined and that it
will be absolutely necessary for them
to cancel engagements and begin an
economical home life Immediately. The
manner in which this information is re-
ceived gives a pleaSant and vivaciouS
glimpse into the wholesome and gem
uine side of human nature. Everybody
accepts the new situation without de-
mur and plans are laid with enthu
siasm for a sincere future. II is an
agreeable impression which might al
most serve as elimination of interest
for the purposes of "a comedy plot. The
wife is no longer frivolous; the son has
resolved to go to work. and the daugh-
ter has escaped marriage with rather
aggressively selfish young man.
Tine play goes on, however, and tho
wife gives her husband, well meaning
ly enough. dose of the nerve soother
that she has been taking for relief
from the social nerve strain. 1t proves
an overdose, and his mind is forced to
entertain the terrible suspicion that his
wife has drugged him and eloped with
O young artist who has fingered un-
duly over the task of painting her por-
trait. She has gone away with him
and taken her Jewels. His perturba-
tfon naturally is extreme, even though
expressed with the outward calm which
Mr.. Gillette employs in way that
gives increased effect to the suggestion
of inward agitation. The audience re-
5oices in the eventual disclosure of
what il suspected all the time-that the
wife merely took the Jewels in order
TO pawn them and get money TO run the
house. and that the artist was trying
to help her in Il spirit of sincere ad-
mirarion and innocent devotion.
The play is wonderfully we'll cast and
the dialogue is full of good points on
which the talents of the actors in every
instance may be congenially employed.
In structure the comedy does not aim
ceeds to tell. without studious dramatic
arrangement of episodes. a most agree
able story dealing with attractive per-
soralities
''th"urh the conversational society
comedy Is apart from Mr.. Gillettes
t- -:e4> O. endeaVor. his admirable
GeEse of proportion and his artistic
poise lent the central role the charm
which always attaches to his creations
Tne audience was appreciative of the
humor that abounds in the piece and
was generous in the matter of an
piause and curtain calls.