The Evening Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1917-1920, 1920-02-19
FOUR ONE-ACT PLAYS
cAPTVATE AUDIENCE
Dramatic Club Performances
Were Well Cast and
Interesting.
Z. EDWARDS STARS
saw, Help Breaks Spell
and Sends Enthusiastic
Crowd Home.
EDWARDS STARS

! The University of Missouri may be
proud of its Dramatic Club of 1920,
! remembering the program of four one
act plays the club offered in the Uni
versity Auditorium from to 1850
O'Clock last evening.
Although the first words Of the
evening were the "Help! Help!" Of a
confidence lady drowning in three
foot lake off-stage. and the last words
of the last play were lady's maids
Jaw, He'll" many dramatic things,
happily done and spoken, occurred
between. The people of the various
plays were well-cast and had the d.
rector been firmer in rehearsals it is
imaginable that the few unfortunate
lapses from the spirit of the piece into
broad caricature that here and there
destroyed the carefully built-up illu-
sion of spontaneity, in the noble lord,
the husbandly evaporation, youthful
hardness, and passionate changeable-
ness in Helen's husband, the poetry
of Harlequin, in the Wonder Hat,
might have been absent.
Zella Edwards, playing the title-role
in the best play of the program, 'The
Clod," by Lewis Beach, had her chance
last night. So whole-souled was her
work as the utterly ignorant, uncar-
ing, drudge-ridden Tennessee-mOun-
tain wife that in the intimacy Of the
auditorium her audience giggled with
nervous anticipation each time she
dragged her heavy feet across the
stage or spoke laboriously. Zella Ed
wards, playing the biggest role Of the
program, achieved the biggest sue
cess. And then, when the cast of the
play had been called for an encore
she did that rare altogether aesthetic
thing-she refused to step out of char
acter, preferring to remain muttering
over the few broken bits of her "best
chiny coffee cup"
The attention of the entire audience
was focused on the stage for The
Noble Lord by the off-stage '1Help!" of |
the heroine. A few seconds later the |
noble lord, played by Fred Edwards, |
entered carrying the beautiful She, |
taken by Margaret Way. |
The play was a trifle of satire, acted |
with assurance but lacking the rapid |
fire which stage repartee must have |
to preserve the illusion of spOntane-
ity. Harry Schwimmer as Peters, the
valet, did a cOcky cockney bit in
the last minutes of the play and went
off to the lake to save the Girl who
thought her rescue by the lord ear
ier in the day was horrible mistake
and was resolved to keep on wading
N the lake and yelling Help" until
he marriageable man did happen
llong to save her life.
Mention of Zella Edwards acting
n The Clod" has been made above.
The story of the play is too well
Known to need sketching here. Joe
Allen. as the Southern sergeant, play
ID up to Celia Edwards with a drive
hat carried the play through. John
CKeefe, in the part of The Clod's
wife, Thaddeus Trask. acted well and
Idded to the plausibility of the Clod.
Benton Gabbert did the difficult role
# the Northern soldier in a way that
Won the hearts of his audience. George
Berry as a Southern soldier did his
matches of lines acceptably.
There was something radically
vrong with the presentation of Hele-
la's Husband, the light piece of sex
attire by Phillip Mollier. Possibly it
vas in the directing. The wording of
be lines is too erudite for caricature.
let caricature was used throughout
nd the breezy cultured unconven-
ionalities suffered. Helena's Illus
and as played some years ago by the
Square Players is a
havian play telling the audience that
Helen, queen of Sparta, talked so
luch that Menelaus, King of Sparta,
rho was a pacifist, plotted success
lilly to have Paris, Prince of Troy,
IRE her away from the palace. If