Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-05-21
Professor Of Eng


Lune' has created what might bC
coiied new idiom in dramatic writing
It's .curlously and brilliantly imagined
harmony. OF plot, characters and back.
ground has a strange and disturbing
navor which. once tasted. cannot bt
forgotten Over IL all. like the moon
light OF its title, shines the quality oi
fantasy. IL is such stuff as dreams
are made on Thus writes Mr.. Ed.
ward Sheldon, the well known dramat .
ist; and on reading Clair de Lune'.
We wonder at these words. But Edward
sheldon ms dramatic critic is not our
topic today.
WHEN took up this play I said,
| w as a reader of old fiction-or must
| say. as an old reader Of fiction? "Ah
ursus. Dea. Gwymplane. or course.
L'Homme qui Rit' And might
have spared myself this recognition Of
the obvious, as note on the false title
declares that suggestions as we'll az
the names of some Of the personages
are taken from" Victor Hugo's we'll
known novel. | then looked for some
unpublished chapters in this touching
and pathetic story. Sir Harry johnson
bas OF late carried on the story OF the
DCmbeys and of Mr.. Shaw's Mrs.
Warren's eccentric daughter, much TO
the delectation of readers. But this
play is not of that agreeable type. In
fact, it seems less to expand than TO
contract figures, incidents and situa-
tions from Hugo's ample pages, chang
Ing bis wide historic atmosphere to the
sitting artificialities Of corrupt and
hcartless court in fantastic no. man 8
land and losing in the process, | should
say, most of the human appeal.
UTHE MAN WHO LAUGHS"
l. which IL better translation than
'"The Laughing Man" It will be re.
membered, is the terrible story OF
child Of noble English parentage. stolen
out Of malice and for revenge, and sub
mitted to a horrible surgical operation
by which his facial expression is per-
manently fixed in a hideous harlequin
grin. He grows up in the company
Of mountebanks. fnthered by an old
man, absurdly called somewhere in this
play "a doctor Of philosophy. and
blind maiden, Dea, who loves him for
the real beauty of. his character. Re
deformed Gwymplane suffers, in the circle
Of the nobility. the untold agony which
his deformity has brought upon him
and in the end he returns TO Dea. who
alone understands him, only TO see her
die aboard boat in which they are
seeking escape, he following her to his
death in the sea. There Is poetry and
pathos in Hugo's tale, and the tempta-
tion Of Gwymplane by noble lady who
is unnaturally attracted to him by his
dcformity is only an episode in the wide
and varied scene.
TN CLAIR DE LUNE," BY Michael
Strange. who 1t is whispered audibly
is really Mrs. John Barrymore, this
last mentioned incident becomes main
feature of the plot. Relieved of its
moonlight. the story tells of queen.
"a sharp featured, neurotic looking
woman we may add of middle years.
Prince Charles, "a slender, exotic look
ing gentleman" who Is her cousin
and her heir; and also by the Duchess
of Beaumont, younger, illegitimate
sister of hers, betrothed to Prince
Charles. Boredom is common char
acteristic of these titled people, and
who can wonder? The betrothed cou
pie. who loathe each other, are repre-
sented as trying to beguile the tedious
hours with croquet. Parenthetically,
mark how this beats out Shakespeare =
Cleopatra at billiards. A troupe of
mountebanks intervene, performing by
night in the royal park. The jaded no
bility wake up miracuiously TO the
remarkable novelty Of n pantomime.
Charles. out of sheer ennui. is attracted
by Dea's beauty and arranges to have
her brought to his apartments while
his precious betrothed as suddenly con-
ceives an unholy passion for Gwym-
plane and his hideous grin, and also
arranges an assignation. Mrs. Barry
moro s-or shall we say this Strange s.
Gwymplane is further deformed with
distorted legs though exactly how he
contrives to perform his fents Of agility
in the pantomime with this handicap is
not quite clear. The upshot Of this
double intrigue of this precious couple,
who are to be married tomorrow, is the
discovery Of each TO the other and to the
Queen, who IN the end turns out not
the rival Of the Duchess for the love
of Charles. but the mother Of that now
illegitimate Prince, Gwymplane being
the true heir. There Is a shadowy vii
lain, Phedro, who wanders about
through the play, but just what be rs
about it would be difficult to say. In
some respects he seems to have been
rather respectable compared to Charles
and his Queen and his Duchess. So
much for Mr.. Sheldon's brilliantly
imagined harmony of plot and Of
Character and OF BACKGROUND" "