New-York tribune., 1920-09-08
'sThe Wosnan of Br0nze,s 9
Shoddy Theatrical Vehicle,
Living Now and Again
Through Great Acting
THE CAST
By Haywood Broun

margaret AhS1in mas SONS masnlH-
cent moments in "The Woman of
Bronze" an artificial and mean-spirited
play, which was produced at the Frasee
Theater last night. In fact our distaste
for this type of drama Ia so intense
that we would prefer to see it played
as wretchedly as it deserves. Nobody
but God has any right to take dust
and breathe life into it.
All Of US who are bound to the
theater by inclination or duty should
realize that we have one foe and one
alone, and il is twaddle. Last night
Margaret Angiin, one of our finest
actresses, gave aid and comfort to this
enemy. So much aid in fact thas at
the end Of the second act there was
sincere and shunderous applause for
as shoddy play as has come TO New
Yerk all season. It is an adaptation by
Paul kester Of play by Kistemaecker,
we'll known French hack who gave us
Where Poppies Bloom" a season or
so ago.
From the beginning "The Woman Of
Bronge" gave every indication that it
was going to be q play which would
give the star big opportunity some
time. or other during the second act
Characters bustled about adjusting
the wires and making ready the ap-
psratus, and then down came the flying
rings and there were flip-flops and
double somersaults and stunts in
numerable. The pity of it lay in the
fact that Miss Angiin seemed to be-
liave in the play and that she took the
most false and artificial lines and sit
uations and, for time at least, made
them real and poignant 1t was beyond
human power for any mortal to 60
through Kistemaecker's big scene from
beginning to end without disclosing the
fact that it was no more than jour
neyman's job for an emotional actress,
bat for considerable period the recog-
milton of stuff and nonsense was made
difficult by the great skill and the fine,
vital spirit of Margaret Angljn.
whose husband was about to leave her,
and she clung to him and wept and
asked if she couldn't just hang around
the house and keep out Of his way, and
we wondered whether this player who
has been and is flaming Maaea had
no compunction, at being so low spir-
tied and abject a creature even in 8
play so cenfessedly unrelated to life.
OF course, we can't maintain that
there is nothing object in life, but
these aspects of existence have no place
in tragedy, which is sanctioned by
tradition to the memory of the brave
in spirit and the tough in fiber. It
was enough to make Prometheus turn
vultures to cawing in triumph.
At first Mrs. Vivian Hunt behaved
husband kissing Sylvis she merely re-
marked: "Aren't You two coming in
TO dinner?" but in the second act, when
she learned that they were running
away together, she was not strong
enough to say: "Can't get you young
folks a taxicab?" Instead there was
much hollering and weeping and
groveling. IL was good greveling,
and not n few in the audience who
should have known better cried. We
take great pride in announcing that we
did no such thing, although we are
among the easiest of marks for plays
in which everything goes dead wrong.
We were not able to forget that there
was not the slightest excuse in the
world for the two women being in the
room together, for the sculptor taking
a hammer and smashing his work or
for the wife resolving to kill the other
woman and then desisting because she
learned that she was about TO become
mother. No more could we under
stand Just why it had become quite
impossible for her to take her husband
back in the last act, and 1t seemed to
US just bit thick when she re-
preached him for want Of fortitude
after we had saen hsr behave the way
she did only an act before.
Nothing need be said about the plot
beyond the fact that it concerned a
sculptor and his wife and smother
woman. and that everything was ar
ranged SO that the complications should
be just as narrowing as possible. This
arrangement included Q scene in which
the wife had TO entertain large crowd
az tea while her heart was breaking.
IT was a most arbitrary arrangement
on the part Of the dramatist, but it
was well carried out by Miss Anelin.
Walter Connolly gave a delightful per-
Yorrnance as the family friend and con-
fidant. John Halliday was pretty good
as the husband, and Mary Fowler is
probably an excellent actress, but she
is SO exceedingly pessonable that one
cannot be suFe. The minor characters
are generally overdrawn and ever
played. The setting is just the sort the
Play deserves.
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