New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-25
Promising Play Comes
To ToUn at Matinee
Darid CARDS 'Inlmodesf Violet
at Forty-eighfh Street Thea
ter Is Crude but Amusing

tcs AS VI Ac ONG amusing
Tho Cast
violet Rose ..,............. Marie Cor
Mrs Amantha Rose $500. Florence Gerald
Jeremiah Rose ..........Fr Frank j. Wood
rhonngn jeremiah Louis rrohom
Hesokiah '''.'..''.' Clarence nocxetsile,r
Mr. Agatha Hobhouso; Maris Hnynes
Mr.. Tockabcrry ...........Jo John Cromwell
s Ms nTan an rayson p,char cn Iuy
Judge Of the Federal Court. Edward Walton
messenger boy. Thomas Larsen
Foreman of the jury. George Fred rs
David CARDS "Immodest Violet" pro-
duced surreptitiously at a special matt
nee at the Forty eighth Street Thcater
yesterday, nroved to be a crude but
often amusing satirical comedy. The
play was headed th4s way for regular
run, we understand, until it was tried
out at Long Branch and met hostile
reception. This hostility is easily ex-
planned, for "Immodcst Violet" is
largely a satire on Southern chivalry,
subject which lies too close to the
heart of Long Branch to be trifed
with.
Occasionally the method of attack is
satirical and then again it is broad
burlesque, some of it excellent bur-
lesque. The playwright has not been
quite steadfast in his intent. "Immodcst
Violet" begins as a comedy. The first
act seemed to us as promising an OPEN
ing as any play has had this year, but
after the first act the strokes became
broader We meet fewer character rs
and more types. One person remains
convincing and true throughout. Arthur
Bodkin, the hero Of the play, is tri-
umph for author and actor. The young
matter Of fact Texan, who always hangs
his nightshrt on the same hook and
never varies by a nickel in following
out the monthly budget of his SIS, is
shrewdly and appealingly drawn and
excellently acted by Arthur McKenna.
TO the young man there comes at
night Violet Rose, q partially enamel
pated young miss, also of Texas. who
wants to borrow enough money to take
her to Dallas, whore she expects to
march in suffrage parade. Her par
ents have forbidden her to attend and
have shipped her off to her aunt's in
a distant town for safekeepng She
has heard SO much of the model young
boarder from her aunt that she has no
hesitation in venturing into his room.
He hasn't got ten dollars, but the re-
little and he tells Violet, by dint of
much prompting, of himself and his
girl and his ideas of women. while
Violet in turn confdes her longing to
escape from the conventionalities of
Texas. While they are thus innoccntly
engaged the aunt discovers her missing
niece and promptly telegraphs to her
family that the worst has happened.
Bodkin is pitched pell-mell into adven-
ture and fees with Violet.
Later we have scene in which the
young couple are discovered camping
on the banks of the Red River and the
subsequent trial of the young man on
the charge of violation of the Mann
act from which charge he is triumph
antly acquitted when the girl takes the
court proceedings into her own hands
and convinces the jury that to the
pure all things are pure.
Violet is not drawn with half the
skill which has been put into Arthur
Bodkin and Miss Marie Golf is in no
wise as capable in this particular play
as Mr.. McKenna. Accordingly, the play
suffers not little when it falls en-
Itirely into her hands in the courtroom.
Evidently the author intended that the
interest in this scene should lie in
the clash between a perfectly frank
and natural person and the formal and
howery fripperies of the law as ad-
ministered in Texas. Vital damage
was done by the fact that Miss Gof
was not natural for moment. Even
the delightful burlesquc of Southern
oratory, well delivered by John Crom-
we'll, could not save the last act from
this handicap and the additional one
that the playwright has not provided
sufficient suspense to swing play
through the ordeal of Courtroom
scene
Yet with all this noted, the play
contains much that is fresh and OBJ
servant of life round about us. II be-
labors some ancient but still strong
traditions of the old South, and our
own theater, which ought to be lam
TASTED, and it contains at least one
vital and altogether appealing charac-
ter sketch. In other words, the nlay
IS we'll above the average and deserves
Ia place on Broadway. William A.
Brady is to be congratulated upon his
courage in appealing over the head Of
Long Branch to New York
1922 Olympic in Brazil
ANTWERP, Aug. 24.--At meeting
to-day of the international Olympia
Committee it WAS fecidod tba+ ~ -