New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-07-31
By Heywood Broun

Owen Davis achieves an occasional
suggestion of excitement in "Oppor-
tunity" and dins the ear with no little
fury, but he never touches emotion.
In fact. he MAKES the big moment Of
his new play a scene in which the hero
smashes chandelier and mirror.
James Crane, who played the part, was
8 little nervous last night, and he
threw three chairs before he hit the
mark. We feared for time that he
intended to pass the mirror, which
might we'll have spoiled the drama.
Although Opportunity" was rushed
into town with prodigious haste it has
no element of novelty. Mr.. Davis
things which money can't buy, that the
love Of a good woman is more precious
than financial success, and that toe
much work is bad for a man. We
think we have heard all this before in
the theater and 1t needs no play of SIX
episodes to convince us of the truth
of any of the propositions stated, par
ticularly the last.
But conceding the truth Of the
theories offered by Mr.. Davis, there
is still opportunity to take issue with
some of his evidence. The playwright
holds to the belief that all men of
conversations over the telephone in
which they shout, CHATS my offer.
You have thirty seconds in which to
accept. Goodby. Hello, Central, give
me 1880 Spring. III give you two
million" Plays such rs "Opportun-
ity" are enormously factoring to Wall
Street men, as they invariably point
out that every broker is SO terribly
busy that he just has to be unfaithful
to his wife in order 20 rest up.
Still, it does seem a little tactless to
the first night of play in which they
are asked to sympathize with the ter
rifcally hard lot of a Wall Street hero
who has to work steadily from 10 in
The morning until in the afternoon,
with no more than an hour off for
lunch. To be sure, the broker works
under considerable strain during his
five hours, but it is hardly to be COM
pared to the tension imposed upon
good rewrite man for at least eight
hours. Mr.. Davis has gone so far as to
get his hero up for 8 o'clock business
appointments, but this, we believe, is a
false touch. Nothing much of impor-
lance ever happens to anybody before 9
o'clock in the morning. That is an hour
for clerks and yacht race reporters.
Unless we are much mistaken, we
I think it will be found that the higher
a man goes in the business world the
less necessity he finds for hopping
from one telephone call to another.
sNapoleonic finance, we think, is modu-
lated and leisurely. Some of the things
in "Opportunity" seemed to US snowy
and effective, but almost none of it
struck Us as being true. 1t is
shallow and noisy play in which
violence is continually confused with
Intensity. The play makes impos-
sible demands upon the players and
q few Of them did we'll. We liked
Clifford Dempsey, because he was the
pne Wall Street broker who conducted
his operations without shouting There
was also interesting work by Leonard
Wiley, Nora Sprague and Kenneth
sMacKenna. James Crane. who is fea-
stured, has done good work, but he
played without sincerity last night.
sPerhaps it is asking little too much
TO expect an actor to furnish his own
{ straw.
We forgot to mention the plot, but
! the reader probably knows without the
telling that as in all Wall Street plays