The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-07-29
VOICE In THE DARK
HUNTS GUILTY MAN
Play at Republic Theatre Is
Pursuit After Crime With
Novel Details.
MYSTERY MARKS STORY
Drama in One Time School Of
Reizenstein and Now More
Familiar Cinema.
"A Voice in the Dark"-At the
Republic Theatre.

Alert bird that Cock Robin. He was
abroad last night again and the whole
discussion was begun all over once more
at the Republic Theatre. And SO shrewd
Is Robin that there was as much inter-
est In the investigation as II the whole
matter had not already been threshed
out twice before this season. Once at
tho Playhouse he was a youthful bounder
addicted to amours with the parlor
maids as the domestic side of his philan-
derings while down at the Broad
hurst he was a miser as well as a
bit of a stalker. Last night at the Re-
public he was altogether the woman
hunter. This was his incarnation in
"A Voice in the Dark" which Is the
contribution of A. II. Woods to the
drama of who Did IT." Ralph E.
Dyer is the author of the new play,
which has four acts.
But 1t also has prologue, since mys-
terry has brought back the preliminary
division of the drama to the attention of
playwrights. 1t has other qualities all
its own. Just as George Broadhurst
broadened out the detective drama which
w. A. Brady has produced as drawing
room episode into a spectacular affair,
with guns and bulls in the darkness OF a
thieves hotel, so has Mr.. Dyar, and prob
ably has also Mr.. Woods, helped to adorn
this murder tale with some of the mech
anism of which the American playwright
seems the master. 1t is all in the school
of Elmer Reizenstein and the cinema, of
ION Trial. and Eyes OF Youth" This
aid, which is the one original note that
the American playwright seems able to
give to the theatres, comes to the effort
to unravel the crime, to clear the mys-
terry of Cock Robin.
Story of "a Voice in the Dark.o
There is no harm in telling some OF
the experiences of the spectators last
night as a report of a play must say
something of what happened. And the
climax-who really did it-that is not to
be revealed here. Again. with the in
variable desire to please which inspires
every reporter OF affairs dramatic, Is this
secret to be kept. But as to other less
essential details of "a Voice IN the
Dark" In the investigation which oc-
ours in lawyers office, there are vari-
Gus witnesses pro and con for the sus-
pected persons. There Is the lawyer de-
termined to have faith in the innocence
of his betrothed. although there are at
times grave grounds for suspecting her
guilt; the hysterical lover who acts as
IL he alone could be the murderer; a
deaf old woman and a blind newsdealer,
opposed all of them to the more or less
laundering detectives. But surely we
have had all this, protests the impatient
reader Where then is the novelty.
The deaf woman saw but could not
hear. SO when in the depth of the forest
near which she stood the characters Wis
ualize her testimony, they do not speak
fv,fn CHI
mime and no sound fell on her ears the
blind man standing at the railway sta
ton heard the voices just as they spoke
out Of the darkness of the stage into the
auditorium of the Republic Theatre last
night. but he saw nothing, not even the
engine which snorted realistically before
the eyes of the spectators as 1t entered
the railroad station. With such episodes
has Mr.. Dyer enriched and fattened his
version of the Cock Robin legend.
Constant Turning OF Action.
These melodramas Of the hunt for the
guilty man or woman seem to hold the
interest taut Just in the degree that they
cling to the crime. Once the clues wan
der go far afield that new relations OF
life, new characters and new motives
must be introduced TO support them, the
suspense of the listener stretched so far
grows too thin and snaps. Mr.. Dyar has
kept his thread of story short, and that
quality combined with the businesslike
brevity and terseness of his dialogue
makes for illusion. The constant turning
of the action backward supplies the
acts with sufficient variety. Mr.. Dyar,
In spite of his success with the audience
last night, has done no more than fur
nish a conventional detective play with
the sensational mechanical interludes
that have become the earmark OF the
recent American dramatist The char
acteristic humor of Willard Mack, who
has written the play over In parts, was
occasionally discernible. but none OF 1t
was as amusing as his speech between
the acts. More of 1t would have helped
the dialogue.
Olive Wyndham, who played the SITS
pected heroine, was natural, and In that
respect superior to most OF her col
leagues They are as rule highly
artificial in the way of the most old
fashioned of melodrama. Florine Ar
mold made the deaf woman of peppery
temperament almost a character Ann
Sutherland as a most overelaborate dive
keeper, Richard Gordon as the philan-
derer, Frank Monroe as the all wise bull
these were some Of the actors who
seemed to please the audience rs they
moved through the more or less con-
Vincing scenea OF the play. But It was
warm for snvAterY last night.