The Washington herald., 1920-08-10
Monday Night at the Theaters

tense verbal passages between the
two rivals with Pencho swearing to
prevent the match and have his
! rivals tubercular heart.
The third act opens in a riot OF
color The OCCASION is the marriage
announcement
cThey're very financial and public
about their wedding plans in Spain,
take it from HopwoodD Here is the
/ colorful, musical high light OF the
/ play with all merry. Into this scene
bursts Pencho, confesses to knitting
his rival, has his confession proved
after being called a liar, and holds
/ off the police while he can accept
| consumptive Xavier's invitation to
fight it out.
NaVler, however, never gets to
fight. He hears his doctor tell his
! father that it's a miracle he lives
at all. At this point he faints into
the arms of his rival, who is still
waiting to fight, and in a final scene
the dominant PcnCho not only de-
iclincs to fight, but forces the dying
! NaviCr to consent to his taking
away Maria. Navier hardly lives
/ long enough to drop the curtain, but
with his dying gasp the men forgive
GdCn OInCr.
This last rings a bit false. There
seems much sound and fury
: in PenCho's histrionic effort to bring
the vlndictiVe, fcverish consumptivc
Ito consent to Pcncho taking his own
girl. 1t has a hokumish favor that
weakens the climax. Pencho might
rise to proper nobility by declining
to fight the consumptive and by
soothing the final moments of a man
/ half-crazed by Spanish hate and
pthisis. Such an ending would have
the power of deeper realism; the
triumph of love over hate would be
more emphatic, and the note of arti-
flciailty and staginess in the climax
would be thereby avoided.
Mr. Hopwoods adaptation, with
Mrs. Rinehart, of the French orig
ina is admittedly liberal. Just how
/ liberal, of course, is not revealed.
He has approached the task of max
ing funny to American ears a col
lection of dialogue that was funny
in France and in Spain. Naturally,
he had to write his jokes with an
eye to the atmosphere of the play
and this has been a slight handicap
but not too much. Most of all.
= though, he hasn't written the adap-
station in the language of Manhat-
| tan, with one possible exception.
| That is where the bibulous Spanish
gentleman confides that the lady is
not his friend; she's his wife. But
even that ancient wheeze would
probably be funny in Spanish ana
maybe Hopwood didn't write it all.
Who knows?
William H. Powell, invests the
character of the love- stricken, hate
dominated. malady -maddened Span
ish with feyerish, delirious IN
! tensity that touches crescendo with
an accuracy and concentration
that is made doubly emphatic by
the odd. whispering note of delicacy
that underlics it. The role of Do
mingo, the consumptive's hopeful
then stricken. father. Is portrayed
by Henry Stephenson. who brings
! a tone of quiet authority and pa
ternal benevolence to the part. Gus
| Weinbure holds the comedy part
of the play and draws from\ it full
| measure without falling into the
common error of exaggeration. Ma
ria Ascarra, as the heroine, is a
sincere. Intelligent performer whose
CHARACTERIZATION proceeds directly
and unfaltFingiy to the point. James
Rennie was Pencho. powerful, reck-
! less and dominating.
1t seems fairly certain that Mr..