The Washington herald., 1920-12-14
By EARLE DORSEY.

basic or inherent appeal is swal-
lowed with profound gusto and
much smacking of lips. According
ly. it will not be surprising if this
same trickery results in a placid
even avid-assimilation by Ameri-
cans of Sachy Guitry's "Deburau,"
a play, by common standards. with
out definite lure for an audience in
these United States.
Belasco has given Granville Bark
er's adaptation of the Guitry poetic
drama a thoroughly sound and
praiseworthy mounting though the
draperies that droop from the pro-
scenium arch are not more palpable
than the definite hypnotic glamour
in which Belasco has mantled this
Partisan theater tale of 1889. De
burau' introduces as a Belasco star,
one Lionel Atwill. a young man with
rather more than the usual share of
actorial afflatus. about whom is
grouped a company that quite at
tains the Belascan standard.
For all this, however, "Deburau"
is a play which. under normal cir
cumstances. will not score with ease
in America. Its adaptation is poetic
in form and its theme is the love-
| less love of a stage Pierrot for a
woman who trifles with love. The
lines. though read with skill and
discretion, find one incessantly seek
| ing for rhyme rather than portent; /;
and the very evanescent nature thus
| trasted almost harshly with the
nearly perfect realism of the Be-
lasco settings. The audience. ad-
ditionally spends, perforce, much
time in a critical appraisal of the
merits of stage pantomime-an oc-
cupation doloroGsly boresome to
some Of US. and while the producer
has colored the play gorgeously with
the atmosphere of the theater, it is
the spirit of the Paris theater of
1899 and it's tiresome pantomimes
for which he asks sympathetic ap-
probation.
Deburau, the chief character, is
the premier Pierrot of the Paris
Theater of that period. Spurning
! the gentler sex, he succumbs at last
to a charmer who trifles with his
passion. Repudiating wife and
home, he returns there to find the
wife gone, leaving behind their
young son. Returning to the home
of the fair one, he finds her in the
arms of another admirer.
Somehow, this scene clearly fail
ed of the requisite intensity. The
situation is obviously tragic in in
tent; in practice it comes perilously
close to comedy, even burlesque.
Somehow this clown, this Pierrot,
seems short of heroic stature, a
rather tiresome sort, who goes into
decline, as 'twere, and waits for
years for his light-o'-love to visit
him.
When she does come he realizes
that love is dead and, rising to full
height, he once again assails the
high places of the theater. He has
been away too long. though, and
he is no longer the Deburau of old.
He is hooted from the stage. and hi.
world of art, as well as his world
{
then, are two tragic moments, both
of which ring strangely hollow
They are tragic, perhaps, but with
out majesty or grandeur of tragedy.
1t is hard also to believe that a
Pierrot and a pantomimist, however
great. can be the idol of a populace.
One does not, of course, doubt the
logic of the fact; one simply fails
to understand how it could be.
The final episode sees Deburau
launch his son as his successor
One is not permitted to know the
outcome OF that adventure, but sue
cess for the boy is assumed Thi.
final act is inclined to be weari.
some. There is a deal of preaching
J and philosophizing that fails t
spirit away the 1880 theater fatigu,
and as the Belasco anaesthetiC
slowly passes one wanders forti
wondering whether, after all
"Deburau" is worth all the time an,
care that has been expended upon it
The finest touch comes in tn,
third act when Deburau. a misan,
thrope, hears with one ear that hi
wife has tossed away his honoreC
name to take the name of a trades
man in jewelry, while with the othel
ear, he is advised of his sons desir,
to follow in his pantomimic foot
steps under that same honoret
name. There is real scorn. rea
irony, real force to this scene, bu
the rest of the play does not equal il
1t is difficult to ascertain wha
share of the faults of the presenta
tion of the main character shoul,
fall upon the story itself, and hov
. much should be referred to Atwill
5 The metered version, from which 1
. is next to impossible to, Glide tn
metric pauses, contributes to tn
e difficulty of the actor, but one feel
s with certainty that much of tn
D gush that will almost surely burs
E forth at mention of this play viii
e be due, in large measure, to a slav
e ish desire to follow the fashion an,
: manifest a proper degree of erudit
. approval over French importation
e that bears an English trademark
Elsie Mackaye brings a species o
: verify to the role fthe actors light
o'rlove, though her performanc
. was far from epic. Sidney Tole
. forced his personality across tn
. lights with his usual ease, and Ros
Coghlan. in a minor part, receive,
good share of applause. The res
l of the cast is of a character tha
merits a word of praise for eac