New-York tribune., 1918-04-21

VI LNO dIc UOWIl SllC HOliiCiy. 1AOV
as ungallant, to pursue this phase fl
Miss Eames can think, or, at any
rate, give the impression that menta!
processes are going on, without knitting
her brows or resting her chin in her
hand or staring at the audience, or
any of those things. OF course, she is
not as eloquent with her shoulder
blades as Mrs. Fiske, but who knows
what her development may be! At any
rate, she speaks and one may hear her
words. 1t has never been our good
fortune to be particularly sagacious in
picking out the stars of future seasons,
but we are willing to risk another pre-
dction. Never before were we SO sure.
The name, you may remember, is Clare
Eames.
The Schnitzler play is another of his
delightful satires on the artistic, or
perhaps better, the professional, tenn
permanent. A great actor has estranged
his wife by indulging in a love affair
with young girl. The tiance Of the
young woman suspects what has
happened and comes to question the
actor, who sweeps away his sus-
picions by playing a part in superb
fashion. 1t detracts nothing from his
performance that it is premeditated.
Unfortunately, the wife of the actor
observes him from an adjoining room,
and, though she was willing to forgive
him his transgression, she is Mortified
at his ability to act lie. She comes to
doubt whether there is any real man at
all, or anything but an actor. The limit
of his art has not yet been reached.
Playing in an entirely different key,
the star wins back his wife. This scene
is trifle perfunctory, and only great
acting would carry complete conviction.
Frank Conroy is not as good as that.
He scores his points broadly Never
does he suggest that the character he
plays is great artist. Consciously, he
satirizes some faults of playing which
would never be among the sins of as
good an actor as the character is sup
posed to be, but, for all that, he is ex-
ceedingly amusing. Joseph Daley also
contributes largely to the success of
"The Big Scene" which is among the
most amusing one-act plays Of the sea-
son. We would say the most amusing
if we had not missed so many this year.
Whenever playwright allows a char
acter to go mad in full view of the au
dience you may be sure that he is at
loss what to do. The merely mad is the
last resort. Of course, we will allow
an exception for Oswald and his sun,
and there are others, but even Ophelia
indicates temporary lack of inventive
ness on the part of playwright Death
and madness are two easy methods of
solving the problem of the playwright
and because they are easy they are usu
ally bad. If you will think for mo-
ment of life in terms of drama you
will probably find that most Of the COM
edy you have observed and practically
all the tragedy consists in fantastic
complication which compel protagonists
to go on living.
This is the chief complaint against
'Ile,' by Eugene O'Neil, which is the
American number in the Greenwich Viii
lage bill. The play tells the story of
skipper who braves everything in the
northern seas to get full cargo of oil.
A threatened mutiny of his men does
not deter him, and no more does the
threatened sanity Of his wife. In fact.
as the final curtain falls we find him
gong on deck to spear whale, while his
wife plays mad)Y on a cottage organ,
indicating that her mind has gone The
playwright explains that the chief rea-
son for her breakdown is the never end
ing ice, which won't do at all. People
don't go crazy like that. There is a
certain sea atmosphere about the piece,
but II lacks the truth and appeal Of
Bound East for Cardiff" which the
Provincetown Players did couple of
seasons back. Joseph Maca ulay as the
Captain and Margaret Fareleigh as the
iee-hating wife play moderately we'll.
The third play is "The Maid Of
France by Harold Brghousc, the
clcyer author of "Hobsonh Choice" and
1t is an entirely conventional story of
Jeanne d'Arc and her new alliance with
the English. There are phrases in the
play which bring some thrill, but the
playwright should hardly get the credit
for these. Timeliness il not among the
attributes Of great or even good drama.
Miss Ruth Boyd, who plays Jeanne,
shouts
We read Seventeen" the other after
noon and then VIC read "Thc Man From
Home" /. brought TO our mind the
fact that when Booth Harrington is a
noyelist he writes about William Syl-
sanus Baxter, but when he becomes a
playwright he writes for William no,
rather let us say, for Silly Bill.
This goes in our fielding average rs
tao errors:
My Dear Mr.. Broun:
Here's Il quibble touchin' on and ap.
portainin' to certain portion Of your
review Of "gcryicc."
First you speak Of Colonel Eulin 60.
ing out TO dinner and returning appar-
III ~