The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-11-10
1.-THE MANDARIN" WEIRD PLAY
SUGGESTIVE OF NIGHTMARE
Located in State of Psyche
Analysis and Trickily
Staged.

Though the exact scene of ''The Man
DARN was not given on the programme
at the Princess Theatre last night, it
evidently was located in the state OF
psycho-analysis. For Paul Frank, Vien-
nese dramatist, from whose play Her
man Bernstein adapted the piece, had
evidently decided that it was high time
some one took an assorted lot of Freu-
dian completes. tricked them out in
clothes and turned them loose before
the footlights TO see what mischief
they'd be up to. The result had the
terra strike poses under the microscope.
The spectators. who seemed in the
main to be trying hard to be New York's
own little intelligentsia, watched young
man OF leisure called the Baron unfold
his troubles on a park bench to a casual
stranger who said he was doctor but
VINO looked like a mistake. You see, the
BaroTs trouble was very simple-it was
woman. oh woman! The plays that
are committed in your name Everyone
having suffered severely from the same
complaint at one time or another, first
nighters leaned forward breathing heav-
lily with interest.
The Baron explained that he had
grown tired of the baronic attitude, that
all .he fun ia a1norous affairs lay in the
chase-what he wanted, like the modern
efficiency engineers, was quick results.
So the doctor gave him q doll dressed
as u Chinese mandarin, endowed with
the supernatural power to bring instant
Is whatever the owner desired, which in
this case would be-. One guess will
do.
This genie. coming to life in the
Bdr0n's apartment and evidently meant
to typify a suppressed desire or a COM
pick or an overworked nerve, brings to
his new master woman after woman
without the delay OF an intervening
courtship but the Baron grows tired of
such easy quantity production. When he
would return to the old method of win
ming them on his own good looks and
parlor manners the MGnddrin slave
works the usual double cross and be-
comes Frankenstein monster. The
Baron seems about to triumph in his re-
volt and capture Russian prima donna
by his own power when the genie takes
the place of the diva and the Baron sud
denly finds himself clasping q complex.
Z Naturally after this the play winds
Up in a lunatic asylum. The characters
in the Bdron's fantastic dream are only
the various demented creatures In his
real playground.
Billed as "a play of another world
The Mandarin" seems likely to receive
a better welcome there than here. W
~ Gilmore bad done n few interesting
tricks with the staging. particularly
with the way the Mdndarir popped on
the stage and the lights did as much
performing as any of the cast BIT
aside from that attention centred OIL
paying tag with the various resem-
blaNccs. It suggested "The Affairs of
Anatol,' it suggested 1.-THE Phantom
Rival" 1t suggested nightmare. Ger
tainly with it's emphasis on sex 1t shed
new light on Aladdin and what he reallt
wished on himself with that lamp.
Brandon lyman played the Baron
with heavy rings under his eyes and
such tricks as looking goggle-eyed at
the footlights. Nine. Halina Bruzovna
showed certain statuesque loneliness
as the opera singer. and aside from
that reminded one Of Miss Theda Bara.
It might be said that this play, writ
ten during the war and symptomatic OF
the mental confusion then prevalent in
the Central Empires, was most appro-
priately revealed as nothing more than
violent outbreak in an asylum.