New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-28
is almost ready to believ. him, Blu, gsy

is almost ready 70 believe him, but gay
and aiming at the ribs.
Nobody is ever shocked at Shaw any
longer. That day went by long ago.
Bat il puts him up to much hardef
test the test that any artist must
meet when his first unusual strange
ness has worn of. And, whatever |
wn9 that did il, the Shaw comedy u
still good, still we'll favored.
The differences between the shaw
Ct ordinary acquaintance and the shaw
OF last night is as much due TO Maclyn
Arbuckle az IL is 70 Mr.. Fayersbam.
When Mr.. Shaw wrote his comedy
about the unnatural relations that exc
ii under the cover Of FAMILY life he
doubtless had no misconceptions as to
he reality OF his play. realizing that
there is as much likelihood Of there
being real people of the kind he likes
20 talk about az there are real people
o. the kind Henry James used 20 write
about. In fact. the Shayian argument
depends entirely upon that being true.
People are not sane and clear-head-
cd in their dealing with love; they
GO not come out in family life and
tax about their secret desires. They
are. on the other hand. moved by
their emotions and seldom by their
reason. But. declares Mr.. Shaw in
elect. look now on this picture, where
n people really do act according
20 their reason, where they are emo
tional only in rare moments Of forget
fitness, and where children thrust out
"lf parents only realized how they
bored their children" and parents re-
.ort in turn, How coarse the young
are, how cruel and callous and dirty
minded" But Mr. ArbUckle refused 10
allow Mr. Shaw 20 balance the theme
50 delicately. He would have IL real
or not at all, and as result John
Tarleton. OF Tarleton's Underwear, as
played by Mr. Arbucslc, moves and
acts and breathes with the very breath
OF life itself. He is full Of favor and
so persuasive Of actually that there
are moments Of his stepping out Of the
picture when one could Almost see him
with one wave Of the hand make i.
fade into vague unreality, leaving only
lin self standing there. real and not al
all a part OF the moments enchant.
merit
Strangely enough, this does not harrd
the play. II only adds TO the CONS
plexities Of its enjoyment.
llSdlI4dUCe - one Of NNP pays tDdy
flavor talk with action. The talk ID
much the best of il. Somehow aeros
planes that dash into greenhouses. dee
posting adventurous people into sum.
mer homes, and gun-toting Socialists
who allow the dramatist 20 become al.
most serious. is not the best thing Mr..
Shaw does. There were times last night
when the dash-in and the dssh-out was
more farce than anything else. Hypatis,
whose father makes underwear, is en-
gagged to Bentley. who is more brains
than bodv and weeps when people say
they dislike him. And along comes
Bentleys friend in an aeroplane, so
fine brute, as Hypatia puts il, thas
she forsakes Bentley. chases the new.
conner all over until he kisses her, and
is seen doing it by the gun-toting So.
cialist, who cries out upon the horrors
ot the unsexed female. SO far as plot
goes there isn't much more 70 II, which
is an advantage.
so far as talk goes. there is much
more. The method OF the play, indeed,
outside Of the flying and the shooting
episodes. is a kind Of turn-tahing be-
tween every one in the east, each Of
them trying out their talk on every
enc else. There is Johnny, the son,
who is a fathead, his qualities duly
inherited from a virtuous and simple
lady mother; Hypatia, like her father.
all straining at the leash aad wanting
20 get out at Life; Bentley's father, A
retired Indian governor, and Polish
lady acrobat, who appears to be Mr..
Shaw's idea of the happy person who
really Experiences" Miss Katherine
Kselred did very well last night as the
Polish lady, and Miss Elizabeth Ris-
don acted Hypatia with a delicacy and
certainty Of effect that was more than
ordinarily satisfying, even in a cast
so we'll balanced.
But i was Mr.. Arbuckle. after all,
who contributed what the language Of
the day has liked TO call the punch.