New-York tribune., 1920-02-25
Jane Clegg'' Is
Highest Mark of
Theater Guild
Fine Performance of New
Play by IRVINE at Carrick,
With Margaret Wycherly
and With Dudley Digges
THE CAST
By Haywood Broun
Henry ClegR

The production of St. John Ervine's
Jane Clegg" is the finest achievement
OF the Theater Guild. 1t is a better
play than John Ferguson and a bet
ter performance. Indeed, it seems to
ssp1red SO deft cooperation throughout
the entire cast To be sure, "Jane
Clegg" has no sudden flash of violent
ana tumutous emotion such as served
to animate the best act of "John Fer
guson. 1t is more even, more sus-
tanned and less theatrical. One is not
even tempted to think of it in term
OF acts, for more than anything else
1T succeeds in achieving a sense of
close-knit unity
r., The play tells the story Of Jane
C!egg, who did her best to make a 90
Oh marriage with vul gar, philandering,
CAMPING, lying husband Not all Of
her best was voluntary. She would have
left him once, but for the fact that
she was absolutely dependent upon
hlm Later she inherited a bit of
money from her uncle, but she took
no advantage then Of her opportunity
tor freedom. She was willing to pivc
Henry another chance. When Henry
stole she was willing to save him from
Ja'l by paying back the money
and going away to Canada with him.
But when she found out even the rea-
sons which he gave for his theft were
lies and that he stole in order to run
away with another woman, she finally
mad the courage to make the decision
to break with him at once. It
was calm, clean break. Jane was
not rebel enough to exult at once in
the freedom which had been forced
upon her. She could not forget that
for twelve years she had been mar
RED to an absolute rotter, but at the
very end of the play, when Henry shut
the door for the last time, there was
perhaps just suggestion of a new
mt to the shoulders of Jane Clegg as
she went up the stairs Of her home
inns brief account may carry the
suggestion that the play is one of those
dull, drab things in which realism is
interpreted to mean the painstakingly
commonplace. Such an impression
would be entirely false. No play of the
season has been more richly endowed
with stirring humor. In fact, the
irony of the play is sometimes pushed
so far, for all its logic, that the play
assumes the form of a farce-tragedy,
If there is such thing.
Though the play must be instantly
acquitted of being either dull or drab
it is little marred, as "John Fergu-
son" was, by moments of pretentious
and self-conscious realism. In the
Irish play, as we remember it, the
hero on his way to Jail remarked that
it looked like rain; while in Jane
Clegg the news that Henry had stolen
money fro. his employer inspired the
observation that things were getting
little colder. We might also have
wished for a dminution in the num-
ber Of times the children were put to
bed and in the dishes which Jane
Clegg had to clear away in one scene.
Nor are we moved to exclaim, "How
true!" when Ervine provides that two
out cf three acts should end with some
body turning out the gas. However,
these are incidental matters, for dur
ing the greater part of the evening
the dramatist has not only been able
to make his people do and say en-