The sun., 1918-10-20
BY BARRETT H. CLARK.


entity refused TO issue his plays in book
form. He is reported to have urged the
excuse that, read in cold print, without
scenery and the warm atmosphere created
by flesh and blood actors, these works
would fail of their effect. Just why he
has at last consented to publish them is
not made known 10 the public. However,
no matter what the reason, every one who
cares about the theatre will rejoice to have
The admirable Crichton, What Every
Woman KnoUs and Quality Street In his
library. Many of us who never saw the
first play and many who saw Only Miss
Adams in the second and third. will re-
gard as a godsend these three little vol
umes.
Sir James was determined that what
ever Of the stage effect could be carried
over into the book should not be lost, and
his stage directions (which are after all
not stage directions at all. but delightful
and intimate running comment >on char
acter and situation) in most cases more
than make up the deficiency; as a matter
of fact, these comments are necessary to
correct the impression made by Miss
Adams in What Every Woman KnoIos.
The extraordinary premise upon which
this comedy is founded is that Maggie
Wylie is plain and lacks charm. Barrie
distinctly says:
"Here MAGGIE enters We
could describe MAGGIE at great length.
But lrkat is the asef What yo1 really
rdnt to knou is 1rhether she pas good
looking No, she WdS not. Enter MAGGIE,
pho is not good looking. When this is
said, all as said"
Now, if there is one thing that Maude
Adams cannot do it is to look and be
plain, and if there is one quality which
she can never efface, it is charm. Her per-
formance of the part therefore nearly
ruins the play.
Matchless Stage Directions.
1t is otherwise with Quality Street. In
this quaint Jane Austen comedy she was
absolutely at home. And here the stage
directions come to our rescue again and
offer the reader who has not seen the play
an opportunity to imagine exactly what
Miss Phoebe was like, and if he has par
ticle Of imagination he will succeed in
creating the picture. For Barrie is the
supreme master of stage direction. Shaw
is hard, metallic, inhuman in comparison,
and Ibsen little more than a Baedeker.
You forget you are reading a play, and
indeed in What Ere,y Woman Knous
Barrie himself, wearying perhaps Of the
formal look of printed dialogue and de-
scription, drops into narrative form,
emitting the names of the speakers and
running dialogue and comment together.
The effect, after the novelty wears off, is
most successful.
Speaking of stage directions, of course
it is difficult TO say just where the best are
TO be found. Perhaps in The Admirable
Crichton. Is there anything in Shaw or
Barker to equal the insight, cleverness,
patness of the followingf
"A moment before the curtain rises the
Hon. ERNEST WOoLLEY drives up to the
door Of Loan House IN Mayfair. There
is a happy smile on has pleasant, i,'sig-
nifcant face, uhich presumably means
that he is thinking of himself. He is too
busy orer nothing, this man about torn,
TO be al,cdys thinking Of himself, but on
the other hand, he almost neper thinks
about any other person. Probably En-
NESTS great moment is when he ,cGkcs Of
morning and realizes th0t he really IS
ERNEST, for IRE must all wiSh to be that
rhich is our IDEAL We con conceive him
spriaging out Of bed light hecrfedly and
toaiting for his man to do the rest. He IS
dressed IN ercellcrt taste, ruth just the
lille bit more uhich Shows that he IS not
Withowt a Se,Se Of humOr: the ddndidcal
are often s0red By carrying a smile at
the Whole thing in their SpGtS, let Us
say. :"