New-York tribune., 1919-11-25
Norman Trever Wins Most
of the Honors of the New
Vaughan Play, in Which
Miss Billie Burke Stars
THE CAST
By Haywood Broun

When Somerset Vaughan has a
dramatic tale to tell he makes a novel
of it, Such stories as prove to be
more meagre in incident he develops
as plays. Usually this development is
made possible by his great skill for
facile light dialogue. Caesars Wife,"
which was presented at the Liberty
Iheater last night, is an experiment
of different sort. 1t is play as thin
in what is generally termed action a
his frivolous "Too Many Husbands"
but he has undertaken to make it ac-
ceptable for the stage by developing
scenes of what we may call static ac-
ton. He presents a certain set of cir
cumstances and then puts before you
some figure in whom the conflict is
almost entirely internal. You sec
Prometheus and, perhaps, the rock
rather vag Aely outlined, but you must
m & ne the vult'res.
Such play affords difficult but dis
tinguished opportunities for actors.
Almost any twitch feels greater
pride in moving an audience by twitch
of the shoulders than by knocking 8
man downstairs. And Norman Trevor
seemed to US exceedingly effective in
suggesting an amplitude of intense hu-
man emotion with minimum Of move
ment, facial contortion or even articu-
late expression. Others in the cast.
at whose disposal greater means of
expression were placed, seemed to US
less successful
The play is interesting in that it
presents a vitwpont which is COM
paratively revolutionary nthe stage,
however we'll recognized it may be in
life. The husband of the play does
not flourish a gun or threaten bodily
harm to any one when his wife tells
him that she loves another man. He
merely suggests that they both face
the problem and see whether they can
not work it uot. The solution is not
particularly convincing. Not to any
audience we thing. but even less so in
a land where not every one in the
house is certain beyond the shadow of
a doubt that Englands mission in
Egypt is God given.
Not all the philosophy of the play Is
as sound as its treatment of the rela-
tlon OF husband and wife. without
CHARM says sthe British official of the
play, in discussing public service you
viii never lead men," just as if Wood
row Wilson had never lived and led
We found the play moving in its mo-
y
slow at others. We are not among
those theatergoers who are emancipat-
ed from the need of physical action
There were times when We rather
longed to see somebody do more than
sip tea sadly or LIGHT cigarette with
. twist of the wrist which indicated
that the heart was breaking Indeed
as we remember, the crisis Of the play
comes when one of the characters is so
profoundly stirred that he refuses his
tea.
.liss Billie Burke, the star of tAe
play, we found by no means as ef-
fective as Mr.. Trevor. In her ligh,
moments we thought her far too heavy
in her touch. Through out the first
scene she never spoke a line without
laughing at the end of it to convince
you that it was amusing. Later in
scenes Of deeper emotion we found her
far more convincing, although it was
never great performance. she had
an appreciation of the emotion which
she was intended 10 convey. and me
OF 1t she car Ned over. but there was
always present a sense that il was an
effort. She has, as yet, by no means
settled into the part
Ernest Glendenning, 4 young man.
VINO knows great deal about tne ar
If acting performed well, but he was
handicapped by the fact that he was
called upon TO play the part of q young