The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1919-03-03
This Weeks Attractions at City,
Movie and Play Houses
In Review

she Walked In Her Sleep" Mark
Swans farce, which opened a weeks
engagement at the Shubert-Garrick
Theater last night, achieves two
rather remarkable feats-it proves
that a play can be so full of breath
takingly funny situations that they
fairly fall over each other, and at
the same time stay within the realms
OF possibility: and that there can be
a bed room scene and a nightie-two
Of each. even-without the slightest
touch OF vuIgarity Incidentally, it's
a corking good show, well conceived,
Well palyed, and well set without a
drag in IL, from the opening to the
closing curtain.
Chief honors in the piece go to the
leading male characters, Robert Ober
and Arthur Aylesworth, but in fair
ness TO the rest of the cast ii must
be said that their roles have by far
the greatest possibilities.
The story opens in the apartment of
the Prescotts, a recently married
couple. whose happiness is being
threatened by the wife Of William
Bruce, Prescott's partner, one of those
women. who not only delights in
doubling her own husband. but also
in making other wives doubt theirs.
Mrs Lenox, Katherine Prescott's
mother, is trying to combat this influ-
ence. Prescott and Bruce come in,
with an old friend, DR.. Keith, and the
women leave. Keith then tells them
OF a case that has brought him to the
hotel. OF a girl who is suffering from
somnambulism, without knowing 1t
self. He explains that they are
afraid TO tell her for. fear of the eff
feet the disclosure might have on her
n nd. In the meantime, Ted Lennox,
Mrs. Prescott's brother, has aunoUnc-
ed that he has. become engaged to a
girl who is staying in the same apart
ment hotel, and is planning to marry
her at once and take her OF with him
20 Brazil.
John Arnold comes into the story
then. with a new and powerful ex-
plosive. which ne wants the two part
Rers to analyze for him, and leaves
the only sample in existence with
them. Everybody goes out on one
rretext or another, except Bruce, who
. stays to go over the contracts. He
becomes so imersed in his work that
he does not notice when a young wo-
man. clad in a nightgown and pic
ture hat, enters the room through a
window, and steals a number of arti-
eles-the tube of explosive along with
them.
A few minutes later Prescott lis
alone in the room and the somnam-
bUiist enters again. He sees her-she
clings to his neck, in fact-but he
doesn't realize that she's walking in
her sleep. He finally manages to
evade her embraces, but can't get rid
OF her. and she is lying down on the
bed in the adjoining room when his
mother-in-law comes in, closely fol-
lowed by his wife. When he opens
the bedroom door, he is inexpressIbly
relieved to find her gone-but she
has left her hat, and he is forced to
sive it to his wife. telling her he got
q for her birthday.
The second act is on the mezzanine
door Of the house, and the action is
fast and furious. Katherine, with /
Mrs Bruce's aid, finds that her hus- |
band didn't buy the hat; Ted turns |
up with his new-wed bride, who !
turns out to be the girl who walked !
in her sleep and Arnold's daughter, !
Daphne; Arnold and Prescott dis /
cover that the explosive is missing,
and Daphne wants to know how her |
new sister-in-law got her hat.
Everything is cleared UP in the I
third act, but only after a number Of /,
mirth-provoking situations.
Marjorie Davis, as the somnambu- |