The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-08-28
DOUBLE EXPOSURE
Is CLEVER FARCE
Avery Hopwood Again Shows
His Skill in New Play
at Bijou.
EXCELLENT CAST IN 1T
Supernatural Element Is In
troduced In Lives Of Two
Young Couples.
EXCELLENT CAST IN 1T

Avery Hopwocd IL not only . writer
OF graceful and lively farce but he has
almost made q school OF his own in
comic plays OF this kind. When one
learnedly speaks OF Palsis Royal farce
the reference Is OF course 10 plays of
philander.ns husbands which were for 90
many years imported here from Paris.
For three decades or more they we're
imported with more or less success.
which seemed to be determined In O
measure by the extent TO which they
were deodortsed. A whole list OF French
authors confined their theatres to farces
Of this kind and several generations of
American theatre managers loyalty con-
tinued TO bring them over
Harmless wickeaness.
1t WAS with the first intimation OF
their failing powers to charm that Mr..
Hopwood appeared on the scene with
his little method. It seems TO consist in
writing and disinfecting simultaneously.
When his plays are ready for the pub
lie eye and ear they are in reality alto
gether harmless. although there is every
appearance OF tneradicable wickednees
about them
There have either been relational con-
ditions that justified everything that
seemed wicked or there have been such
exculpatory documents as marriage GER
tincstes about that could render impossi
BILE anything worse than the appearance
OF evil 1t is this gift for insinuating
that evil is 10 him who evil thinks that
Mr.. Hopwood's rival playwrights at
tribute his success
In Double Exposure" which Selwyn
Co. produced last night at the Bitou
Theatre. there were two young couples
They lived conveniently in the same
apartment One husband sometimes
thought sentimentally OF what might
have been.
But IL was not until a yogi appeared
that there was any real opportunity by
the interchange OF the astral bodies of
these husbands for the women to decide
whether their marriages had been for
the best or not Any astral body found
in an Avery Hopwood farce 10 inevitably
an astral body out OF In beaten track
Seeing One Another In Real Light.
The indignant yogi who transferred
the disposition OF one husband to the
body Of the other confused the young
wives for = while but the moral effect
was to satisfy them with their real
spouses. Then the wives were alto
sether content TO let matters remain as
they were since the brief glimpse OF the
actual characters of the men was
enough TO console them with what they
had.
SO Mr.. Hopwood followed his mode,
OF foreign farce even to the point Of
a.
pened even IL IL really was not
ethical deduction
Although farce is usually most et-
fective the closer it lies to the COM
monplace experiences Of life. Mr.. Hop
wood manag ed his supernatural element
adroitly His skill in contriving all the
situations in which his characters ap-
peared made the action. move with a
naturslness and probability rare enough
in the run OF native plays OF this kind
Agreeable Novelty.
There was agreeable novelty in the
idea of the husband who managed TO
get what he wanted to drink In spite OF
his wife's vain efforts to discover when
in the language OF the play. which has
another quality rare In the work of
American playwrtghts IN that II springs
from the situation
Double Exposure" is not only ex-
tremely diverting. but highly creditable
achievement Of the playwright's art No
other American writer works with such
finish as Mr.. Hopwood in this neld
Selwyn & Co. had employed in the in
depreciation OF the new play some OF the
most sklful OF their actors John Cum
berland and John Wesley were anus
ingly contrasted as the two husbands.
and Mr. Cumberland solemnity when
his real self was especially droll.
Janet Beecher has never been hand
somer than she was last night nor did
she ever play with more humor and IN
telligence. Little Francine Larrimore
still labors valiantly to keep alive the
tradition OF the Billie Burke nannerisms