The sun., 1918-09-01
By BARRETT H. CLARK.

number OF our younger American DRAM
atists-or rather, of the American dram.
atists We have never ceased to call young.
And that is that he is not out of the
promising class. Indeed, ever since he
began to achieve success as a producer
he has been promising us new plays, plays
which should carry forward the tradition
begun in The Marrying Of Ann Leete, and
developed up TO a certain point in The
Voysey Inheritance and The Madras
House.
1t was with a feeling of regret and
scepticism that | called on Mr. Barker
about five years ago-regret that he had,
at least for the time being, laid aside his
pen, and scepticism as to the probability
that he would again take it up. l looked
upon him as lost soul. When he stepped
into the lobby of the St. James's Theatre
in London one noon during the rehearsals
of 4ndrocLes and the LION, had difficulty
in recognizing him. had seen his photo
graphs and recognized in them man still
young, but 1 was not prepared to see in
the original man younger than his
youngest looking picture.
Granville Barker was at that time a
young man; there was in him all the
buoyancy and effervescence of youth. His
hair was a light red; his face clean
shaver, and his eyes full of a playful
sparkle. He was a great burly boy.
do not know how the past four years
have affected him, but at the beginning
of the war, middle age seemed farther
from him than it does from me- I ceased
to regret, and my scepticism fell from me.
Here, forsooth, was young man who had
time to experiment; Barker was no set
tied producer who had given up play
writing as bad job. Before ! met him
1 had thought he had found success and
fame as a manager and relinquished his
ambitions TO become a dramatist.
The tenor of his conversation confirmed
my new notion that he was still to be
counted ON as a literary artist, that he was
as keenly interested in the drama as he
was in the theatre. When he chatted
about his travels in Germany earlier in
the year, he was as vitality concerned
over the then recent developments in dra-
matte writing as over the new devices
employed by Reinhardt and the others.
1t is significant that the topic which in
terested us most at lunch was a new dram
atist-Carl Sternheim, whose latest play,
Der Snob, was produced at the KAN
merspiel-and not stage teehnic or light
ing.
Mrs. Barker-Lillah McCarthy-joined
us at a small cafe not far from the thea
tire, and we continued to talk about plays.
Personally Mrs. Barker showed little of
that cold and statuesque beauty which is
so effective on the stage; she was de-
lghtfully offhand, and much more inter-
esting than 1 thought she would be.
(Somehow / cannot imagine the Juno
type a particularly interesting converse
tionalist.)
His View of His Plays.
After the preliminary chat about the
war, we delved into the question Of Bar
ker's plays. He was delightfully."- frank
about bis own work; perhaps little
seornful, though. What he said at that
time he subsequently wrote TO me in more
succinct style 1 quote briefly from that
letter, which was in answer to a query
from me regarding the suitability of his
PLAYS to the American public:
"Of my own plays-well, The Voysey
Inheritance may be the best one to read,
but it is rather English The Madras
House les so. These two are comedy.
Waste is serious-it wants one very good
plan. PruneHd, in which collaborated
with Laurence Housman, would, / fear,
lose much without the action, but if you
want something light and lyrical, that
would be my choice. 1 am very
grateful for your good wishes. / send
you mine-it is always happiness 10 feel
that one has fellow workers.
well remeuber little dispute we had
~ tbot lunch II waS oyer Rococ0 a MAY