New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-09-14

Drama
"Civilian Clothes," by Thomp-
son Buchanan, Seen at
the MOrOscO

An excellent idea for the stage was
presented last night when Thompson
Buchanan's "Civilian Clothes" opened
at the Morosco Theatre. An excellent
idea, fresh, broad in scope and truly
dramatic, but oh, Mr. Buchanan! 1t
may be, as Mr.. Buchanan says, that
the way to handle woman Is tC
treat her rough" but we are quite
sure that it is a mistake to extend the
rule to plots
"Civilian Clothes" is a play about an
American girl Of patrician stock, who
goes to France and falls in love with
a brave young captain. He is nero,
masterful and efficient officer and a
romantic hero She marries him secret
ly in a shell-swept village just behind
the lines, and few days. later he is
severely wounded. In fact, his name
appears on the list of those killed in
action and the girl does not see him
again until months after the war, when
he comes unexpectedly to her home in
civilian clothes. The shoes of the hero
are a bright yellow, his tie is red and
green and his suit bulges where 1t
should press closely and presses close
ly where it should hang free. He is
not a romantic figure, and with the
glamour gone Hcr lOVeS uocS, wv, AoI q
little while The shock is all the hard
err when the former army man tells the
girl that his father is the best cobbler
in Racine and that he intends to take
her to live in a little cottage next the
shop.
Here is an excellent starting point
for light comedy, high comedy trag-
edv. farce, or what you will, but Blu
chanan has elected to treat his theme
as broad and cheap farce comedy with
sentimental complications. In order
to teach his wife lesson in social
democracy, the husband, whose iden-
tity is not known to the rest of the
family, accepts a position as butler in
the girls home, and the audience is
treated to a more or less familiar COM
parison between the virtues Of the
humble and the vices of the affuent.
OF course the experiment succeeds.
Every now and then line blazes up
from the embcrs, which makes it pos
sibe to believe that Buchanan could
have done much better with his theme,
but purposely cheapened it to bid for
popular favor. Rebuked for going
from an army captaincy to the position
Of butler the hero replies that there
is nothing homogeneous in his choice
of a civilian profession. when my
colonel talks to his general" he ex-
plains, "hc's a perfect butler
But such sharp satire is rare in the
play, which is largely devoted to broad
horscplay and even wider sentiment.
1t may be that Mr.. Buchanan's method
will attain large measure of success.
The audience was markedly amused
last night, and yet we are of the opin-
ion that at least as successful q career
might be commanded by better treat
ment of the theme. 1t can be said in
justice to the play that, although it is
often cheap and tawdry, there is a dis
tinct current of events until the last
act, which drags badly. Incident is
abundant, and many of the humorous
devices, although familiar, are handled
adroitlv enough to be amusing.
The acting is attuned to the char
actcr of the play. Thurston Hall as
Sam McGinnis, the homespun hero,
was particularly successful. He over
acts by a wide margin in many in
stances, but his performance has the