The Washington herald., 1918-05-20
POII's-.In m Net"

Miss Izetta Jewels return to the
stage, and in particular to the good
old boards of Polls, where she reigned
40 long in the stratum of stock. was
accomplished last evening in a play
Of which the title was aptly and elo-
QUently descriptive.
There is such an enmeshed motiva
ton of In a Net" so many angles
+ the plot leading to diffusion rather
tnan to Capitalization and compact
ness. that the drama naturally lends
itself to mixed and varied feelings.
II is not conventional in any sense.
MaTaVene Thompson has succeeded in
giving her first play a new story, and
it is indubitably true that the story
can and will be made much more
convincing and sound than 1t now Is.
That much Is certain to come before
the drama assumes its permanent
form.
, "In a Net is to be classified as a
melOdrama which escapes the hack
Ucyed channels by a plot which darts
into what is. so far as present men,
Ory goes. a new field OF theatrical
exploitation. For instance, we find in
the final act a mother desperately try
, ing to save the honor OF her boy and
who. in that fight. is forced to pre-
tend marital relations with a man
not her husband, a victim of anne
sia-that is. one who has temporarily
lost control of those cerebral centers
wherein dwell the memory, The au-
thoress and the players do yeoman
service in trying to make such a stu-
alton plausible. One does not have to
witness the play to envisage the al
most insuperable difficulties of doing
so.
But for Washington at least ,hc
main question to be asked of the new
piece is this: What does it do for
Miss Jewell" Well. it provides her
with some opportunities for emotion
alism which she accepts with fiuency
and ease. One can readily imagine
Lee Kugel. producer of the play. cast
ing about for an emotional actress
who could realize in it's fullness the
hiCh-preSsure quality of mother
love" as "xemplified in In a Net"
turning his eve in the direction OF
Miss Jewel as an adequate exponent
of the part The ex-Queen of local
stock showed she had lost none of
her old skill. none of her facility and
sureness Of touch. She acted the part
Of ''Allayne Norman" cleverly, avoid
ing the temptation of overacting 1t,
Or of masticating the scenery in the
vein of the Leslie Carter and Olga
Nethersole school.
Miss Jewel has surrounded her
self with a company which for the
most part Is excellent. Charles
Milward gave a smooth and we'll
rounded Interpretation of the role
of The Man" the memory-bereft
hero who narrowly misses robbinS
the heroine OF the sympathi~s of
the audience at more than one point
in the development of the plot. Wal
ter Bingham could we'll give
trifie more repression to the imper-
sOnation of DIR. Morris. Walter Will
son contributed an excellent char
aCter study of a dissolute husband
as Bruce Norman; Buster Wattell
scored one of the real hits of the
play in the role of the boy, Billy
Norman; Clarence Handysides was
adequate to all demands that the
role of Sir Henry Drake made upon
him: Cyril Holmes contributed some
rather futile comic relief as Mar
tin: and Gypsy" O'Brien made quite
striking picture as the model,
Elise Ellison, in opening the play.
Cast and production are excellent
of their kind, and the play undoubt-
edly will be knitted together, will
lose its tendency to talkiness, as
the trying-out period reveals its
minor structural flaws and gives
more effective projection to the
story.