New-York tribune., 1919-02-28

THE Fortune Teller" Seen in
First Performance at
the Republic
By Haywood Broun

The post of prompter for "Thc
Fortune Teller" should be awarded to
some worthy and INDECENT actor. The
work is of the lightest. Nothing
would be required of the incumbent in
the event of any lapse but to whisper
from the wings, "a mothers love-" and
let the play go on.
Now We have nothing against moth
ers. We have every reason to believe
that a great many of them are not
only estimable but charming. They
average, we should say, fully as high
as fathers and little above second
cousins. Maternal affection is power
full and tenacious emotion which is
often beneficial to giver and recipient
but we are irritated by plays which
seem to be founded on the theory that
the one moving force in the world is
mother love" We think this is hardly
talr. to steam, or hunger, or hate, or
great aunts, or wanderlust, or any of
the other dynamos by which men live
1t is also our impression that the
mothers whose affection is most pro-
found never say much about it, If they
stopped to discuss the matter for no
more than a couple of platitudes they
would probably find that they we're a
week behind in their work. Words
are pretty poor medium for the ex-
preston of the most profound emotions
of life because the emotions came first
and language has never quite caught
up.
The heroine of "The Fortune Teller"
is among the most irritating types of
mothers, not only because she tells
everybody how much she loves her son,
but because she has recourse at times
to the phrase "You've never been a
mother" OF course there is no an
swer. Our own method is to admit
the impeachment and take the conse-
quenccs. We never found argument
bit of use.
The heroine of "The Fortune Teller"
is saved from being dreary person by
the remarkable work of Majorie Ram
beau in the leading role of the new
play by leighton Graves Osmun at
the Republic Theatre. The character is
crudely conceived by the author, but
Miss Rambeau gives her subtlety. The
dialogue as set down is bald and repe-
titious, but as spoken by Miss Ramheau
it is often profoundly moving and at
all times dignified and forceful.
We can think of no playwright this
season who has been as signally indebt-
ed to any of his players as Mr.. Osmun
is to Miss Rambeau. She makes dead
words stir like leaves in spring
breeze. They dance when she speaks.
1t will be a very tragic pity if Miss
Rambeau never finds truly fine part.
II seems to be her fate to appear in
tawdry plays because she can carry
them on in spite of the handicap. If
ever she is allowed to start in strict
ly scratch competition we think she
will give the theatre an amazing
achievement.
"The Fortune Teller" has a certain !
number of ingenious twists of plot,
but it is far too deliberate to be good
melodrama and its dialogue is much
too commonplace to be good anything
else. 1t also suffers from the fact
that its first act is so much better
than the two which follow that inter
est runs down hill most of the evening.
The play tells the story of an erring
mother who finds her son when he
has just turned twenty-one and helps
him TO a successful career through
the advice which she gives him in tell
ing his fortune. She never reveals her
identity to him. but remains the fort
une teller to the end And the end
comes when he is about to marry be-
cause she feels that she has com
pleted her task and can we'll turn
the destinies Of the rather fragile
young man over to the other woman.
Miss Rambeau is the only blazing
light in the company, but there are also
effective performances by Hugh Dill
man as the hero, E. L. Fernandez as