The sun., 1919-09-12
"She Would and She Did" Is
Presented at Vanderbilt
Theatre.
"sHE WOULD AND SHE DID" AT
THE VANnERnUU

Grace George selected a play OF Amer
lean authorship for her return to the
local stage last night at the Vanderbilt
Theatre. she Would and She Did," de-
scribed as Tight comedy" on the pro-
graInme Is the work OF Mark Reed He
is one of the Harvard school OF play
wrights, and the work seen last night
was the first to arrive behind the foot
lights The title inevitably reminds one
without prejudice to the work under
consideration Of She Would and She
Wouldn't" by Colley Cibber But that
has not been seen in New York since
Ada Rehan played its heroine at Days.
There was. moreover. not the least
indecislon about this modern heroine.
When In a burst OF feminine temper
because she had made such a bad shot
she tore up the turf about the eighth
green Of course that all the society
OF the small town loved she had TO
pay the penalty. She was suspended
for sixty days just as II she had been
mere man. She determined TO get
back-and she did. Her betrothed tried
to assume an attitude of neutrality and
refused TO vote for or against her He
even refused to sign the petition for
her reinstatement. But she was still
determined to get back. Sc fought the
mere men among her enemies with their
own weapons and routed them.
Miss George Is a brilliant comedienne
in such parts. and her style was never
crisper than in this little play. Nor has
she ever acted with greater naturalness
and variety. She was a heroine that
might readily have been forgiven for
any display of temper. She and Cora
Witherspoon as her ally in the struggle
for reinstatement were charmingly
womanly and unreasonable in all their
| tactics. In these two characters centred
all the interest the piece contained
There was scarcely an endurable or
plausible person among the others. The
betrothed who refused to come 10 her
assistance In such a crisis was an I'M
forgivable cad. The pompous member
OF the greens committee was unbeliev-
able In the earnestness with which he
treated the occurrence until he grew
insolent in his insinuations that the So
ciety OF a woman OF 26 who smoked
cigarettes was undesirable in the country
club. again her betrothed failed In his
duty for at any cost he should have
thrown such an Ill hammered boor out
Of his office.
But the vein OF humor in "She Would
anu oiio Llo 10 INC tIllHHcbI
There is no dramatic suspense in the
! piece. The author has not known how
TO irnpart any theatric interest to ths
snecdote, which is wholly narrated by the
speeches OF the characters. Occasionally
a burst OF feminine characteristics IN
the pursuit OF her plan enabled Mis-:
George to amuse the audience. But
even her finished art was generally in
effective In imparting anything liz,
sparkle 10 the polite conversation Of this
men and women which was evidently
supposed to be wit. But IL was merely
talk of very commonplace quality.
Yet there Is no reason why light come
dies should not be entertaining. They
have been for generations They shoult
perhaps rest on something hrmer thar
a few inches Of torn UP turf Boucicaul
said a farce should be built on granite
! So a comedy ought to have some plaust
BILE starting point. II may not even b,
necessary to comply with Freytag's de
mand that u plays motive must be i'm
portant. Yet there really must be
little bit more than Mr. Reed gave tn,
audience last night. Even the competen
actors Mr.. Brady had selected and Mis-
Georges sparkling comedy could no
tighten up their material to any dis
cernible extent,