Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-04-16
NEW MUSIC ON THE
OLD-FASHIONED TRIANGLE
T,oo Women Have Written Comedy OF Situation and Char
acter That Deserves the Success IL Has Won
BY FELIX e. sCHELLING
.eslI.h l.srs.ure In the tn,er.., Of renn.,lvanls


tary. her maid. most of them Italian,
madame is very much at home in her
own house. And the talk turns on tne
old days Of music, travel, adventure ana
romance which madame and her nus :
band had lived with these very people !,
Florn, the lady who Is to marry, alone
getting little by little more and more
out of It. A call has come meanwhile
from her manager asking that madame
will 20 to South America the next day
at noon. She is prepared to accept.
Flora Is generously constrained 10 leaVe
the sometime husband and wife to talk
the matter over. Are we not wives
in -law?" says madame. And the up
shot is that although Flora interrupts
them by phone from her hat below sev
eral times until the receiver is left on
madame easily wins back her husband.
Indeed, 70 complete Is their absorption
that they have forgotten completely the
trifling circumstance that they are no
longer man and wife. In the morning,
with Flora and an army OF reporters
besieging the fat, the reunited couple
are forced to an elopement by the back
way TO fulfill madame's engagement In
South America and escape the scandal
created by their conduct.
THERE is, of course, much besides
i In the lively process of this comedy !;
nice boy, the son Of madame nice
girl, several temperamental Italians
whose nature is well understood and de-
picted with all their charm. love OF the
arts and irresponsibility. Nor would l
insinuate the least criticism Of the re-
currence Of these familiar figures. 1t l'
as preposterous to demand original hg
ures on the stage as In an account DoOA
the combination, the ordering, the ar'
of your arithmetic, that Is literally
what counts. In Enter Madame" there
Is sufficiently novel ordering to give
that pleasure of surprise in which com
edy of this species at least largely SUB
sists Surprise in the expected, the ex :
pected wrought by novel means-here
Is the recipe. It Is as easy as an ONE .
let theoretically; and as tricky and
not attain to that realm of art In which
abide the perfect comedy and the per
feet omelet cheek by jowl, unless 1t
has that last perfection and seasoning
distinction Of style. This, in common
with most of our good plays: as well
as the bad and Indifferent. Enter Ma
dame" has not. And I doubt not that
the authors would scorn the idea that
this is In any wise want. "A picture
of life," their defender might say
must be like life; and neither life moi
the dialogue Of life Is distinguished no
maintained by this quality of which 20,
speak, style" But this Is just wher'
we miss it. A comedy. no matter how
realistic, il really not life, but lif
translated into the highly artificial ant
conventional terms of the stage. W,
cannot improve the stage by making II
unconventional. We can enhance ant
perfect the art Of the stage by realizing
and using to the best advantage thu
conventionnlities of which ii consists
One Of these is distinction in dialogue
quality in expression; not a contradic
ton of what occurs in life, but height
ening of it into the terms of art. Unit
we get this and the much more that this
essential principle involves al the In
dividualities and temperamentalities-
which are as unreal off the stage a.
on-and all the little realities. such as
telephones, for example. which are a
wearisome on the stage as off-will no
help us far toward an actual restora
tion of the drama to the sphere of ,
true art.
ENTER MADAME. a play in three acts
By Gilda Veresi and Dolly Byrne. Intro
duction BY Alexander Woolcott. New York
q. p. Putnam's Sons. Sl.7o.