New-York tribune., 1919-09-22
Drama
Booth Harrington Comes Into
His Dramatic Own With
"Clarence'
BY Haywood Broun

~ AACy WOOO DfOu0
with fine air of assurance and
hnality, we committed oursclf, II wccp
or so ago, to the statement "Rooth
Harrington will never write half so
Wet Tor the stage As he does for the
printed page" Clarence" a new four
act comedy by Harrington, was pro-
ouced at the Hudson Theatre last NIGHT
ana TO- day we find ourself confronted
~ 'he necessity of breakfastinr upo,.
our words. Although our facility at
recantation is by no means Woodro
wan. we have had some little practice
we have, in the past, picked the Giants
70 WIN the worlds series, hazarded the
oNhlon that the war would last ten
years. and predicted that east Is Vest
would run week. SO we find it DOS
Siole to-day to be entirely cheerful in
resembling our previous opinion in tie
lace of the compelling fact that Tark-
lngtons "Clarence" is as good as any
OF ms creations in the short story or
the novel: To our mind "Clarence" is
the best light comedy which has been
written by an American. After all it
Is not so much for us to be abashed as
for Harrington. If we could write a
.t'arence" and had written .Mister
Antonio' and can Up From Nowhere
we would feel that we owed an expla-
nation.
harrington has achieved his success
IN "Clarcnce" by abandoning all his
previous playwriting processes. He has
vigorously excluded from the play
every effort to win easy applause by
cneap appeals to sentimental preju-
dices. He has provided his characters
with amusing lines to speak instead Of
Ilp hos ,!u
dazzle his audience by heighterin,- the
color of every situation which he
handles He has chosen d simple story
closely related to the life abou. us all
an. has allowed it to develop easily
and naturally. Indeed, he has written
this play as all plays should be writ
ten, but as only ore or two in genera
t'on ever are. If it were not for the
hlgh cost of living and such like, this
partcuar servant of the drama would
Wliilngly depart in peace feeling that
the long vigil had ended, for it seems
to US that "Clarence" is the great
The ''S's story u'aa of the play skn effect the
reverse of "Civilian Clothes" Clarence
IN his uniform is ganglng. awkward
inquire. lnteresting only as a repository
OF coniidences pressed upon him with
the explanation, "You've been in the
army, so YOU know" 1t is only when
Clarence gets back to his civvies that
he eventually achieves all his pre-war
Importance and magniticence as q
coleopterist who has been on potato
bugs for five years.
After all. Clarence was drafted man
who never got to France, and his only
significant experience came on the af-
ternoon when he was shot in the liver
at target practice. For very excellent
reasons Clarence is not able to 90 back
70 his old potato bug job at the end of
the war, and, finding the openings for
coleopterlsts rather limited, he ac-
cepts. somewhat i'll defined position as
plumber, piano tuner and generally use
tul man in a much distracted household
IN which the affections Of cveryboI
arc wrongly placed. The advent OF
Clarence provides new factor. which
threatens Tor a time new disturbances
but eventually calms the complications
To be sure. he leaves heartbrcak be
hind him Cora, who is about the age
OF Lola Pratt and the most fascinating
stage creation of Harrington. feels
sure that her life is blghted but, then
it has been blighted before. 1T is upon
one Of her most active tantrums CON
corning q previous blight that there
descends one of those God given mo-
ments in the theatre which make a
spectator willing to throw away all the
rest of the plays in town in exchange
Tor single situation. "Go wash your
face seems to us such q line. as spoken
by the distracted and irate father TO
his daughter, and echoed back by her.
Helen Hayes. the marvellous young
actress who blazed before us last sea
son in Dear Brutus," is the Cora of
"Clarence." She makes it quite impos-
slble for us to give any conception Of
the anguish, chagrin, humiliation
scorn and anger which she puts into
her "Go wash my facet" when the
command is suddenly thurst into the
this particular moment seems to us
worth a little more than the whole
crop OF plays Of a single average sea-
son. although we might also wish 'C
save Lionel Barrymorc's three hops in
"The Jest" just before he rushes out to
give battle to the men at arms who are
pursuing him.
to prove the wisdom of Bernard
Shaws remark, "In the long run the
actors will get the authors and the
authors the actors they deserve"
We can remember no cast so nicely
proportioned as that Of "Clarence"
Alfred Lunt plays Clarence with great
skill, although he is q performer who
needs an act or SO to win himself into
the graces of an audience But per-
haps this is hardly fault. Often it
is just as we'll to lie off the early pace
and then come with rush at the
end when the need is greatest. Ger
tainly Lunt plays his final scene
beautifully, with touch which leaves
the very best memories Of the play
fresh as the curtain descends.
Still, it seems to US that the chief
acting honors go to Helen Hayes, who
plays young women Of sixteen, or
thereabouts, as they have never been
played before in the American theatre
And let's quote ten to one that they
will not be played SO again in the
next twenty seasons. Her part is
better than that in Dear Brutus," for
here she is able to use all the gush
of girlhood for humorous effect with
out any of the responsibility for heavy
sentimcntality which Barrie imposed
upon her. Yet it is not work without
delicate shading of appealing scnti-
ment. One laughs but not too much
Another very striking performance is
that of Glenn Hunter as Bobby
Wheeler. Cora's young brother, first
cousin to William Sylvanus Baxter.
and second cousin to Don Juan. Here
it seems to us that the edge Of exag-
geration is sometimes little sharper
than that in the work Of Miss Hayes.
bu+ tyloriouc porfor,,,oDoo ,,N