New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-09-13
The New PLAY
By Percy Hammond
ssThe Circle" Is a Smart En-
sertainment, Played Well
by Experts Veteran
and Youthful
TUE CAST

THE CAST
Arnold Champion Cheney, NJ. r.
Robert Rendcl
Footman ........,....- Charles l.. seaiy
Mrs. shsnstone ..>..'-. Maxine Macdonala
Elizabeth .........s....- Esteiie Winwood
Edward Luton ......,.... John Halliday
Give Champion Cheney Ernest Ia as,,,a.i
Butler .......-..'....- waiter Soae Kim
Mrs Leslie Carter
The happenings at the Selwyn Thea
ter last night were suspicious, bringing
together as they did comedy of much
sophisticated charm and company of
players we'll disposed toward its several
characters. There were present MRS.
Carter and Mr.. Drew, "back on the
job" as Mr.. Drew described it, both
cast in roles pleasing to their talents,
rich in ironic humor and possessing the
persuasive touch of sympathy. Also
Miss Estelle Winwood, among the most
seductive of the condolences, and
Ernest Lawford, in benign display OF
his ouzzical attributes.
x 4
Mr.. Maugham's comedy proved worthy
of this casting of pearls, not only as
an example of good play-writing but
as a hospitable entertainment. 1T
offered bizarre circumstance, almost
farcical in its possibilities, and it treat
ed that circumstance in fashion halt
grave, half mischievous, but always
sane and credible. Thus it showed in
the first act the meeting of Lady Kitty
Champion Cheney and Lord Porteous,
with whom she had eloped thirty years
before. and Mr.. Champion Cheney, her
former husband, at the country home
of their son, bloodless member of
Parliament. Posed on this broad foun-
dation was the love affair Of young
Champion Cheney's wife with an impel-
ling youth with nice hair and thirty
six good teeth. as Mr.. Gressmith says.
Despite the unhappy spectacle made by
the aged clippers and their none-too-
satisfactory experiences, the young
people bolted in the last act, thereby
demonstrating Mr. Maugham's theory
of "The Circle"
That our attendance upon "The Cir
cle," therefore, may not be without its
ethical as we'll as it's amusing recon-
penses, we learn from the adventures
of it's characters that Experience is
not transferable and that we can CLEAN
no warnings for the future from the
foilies of our fellow men. Not even
when they are members of our own
family. Though Elizabeth Champion
Cheney is appalled, at the dyed hair,
the rouged soul and the shallow vivaci-
ties of her erring mother-in-law. she
takes no profit from the exhibition.
She listens to Lady Kitty "fribbing"
with Lord Porteous, old, bald, gruff and
irascible, and she hears with disgust
the details of their unmarried lives.
Yet she decides in the end that unrest
and anxiety with the man she loves
tO dull fnrfc wit n
the man to whom she is married, and
so she bolts to a plantation in the Fed
Grated Malay States, where, her sweet
heart tells her, he has some ripping
azaleas growing in his garden.
X x X
Mrs. Carter was not permitted to ex-
pose the full depravities of Lady Kit
TVS character last night, censorious
touch having been put upon her past
in the American edition. In London she
naively confessed some charitable mis-
steps with romantic Italians, a detail
that further disturbed her daughter-in
laws aspiration to abscond But in
Mrs. Carriers explicit performance
Lady Kitty was sufficiently an omen.
She was, as Mrs. Carter acted her,
and as Mr.. Lawford described her, a
woman sullied by coarse associations,
y
olity, her charming impulsiveness into
idiculous affections. She finds life
Squaint, she said, quaint but sad. Il
don't mind telling you," she observed to
her husband, chat if I had my time
over again l should be unfaithful to YOU
though l should not leave YOU" Lady
Kitty, however, was not without her
moments of wisdom. Warning hel
daughter-in-la of the disadvantages OF
living with man though not married
to him. she reflected plaintively, Given
when they're in love, they're not in love
all day long" The young woman, also
had given some thought to life and its
conventions. When her husband who
told her that since she had made hel
bed, she must lie on it, she demurred
'That's the falsest proverb in the Ian
guage," she said. "Why should lie or
the bed I've made if l don't want to
There's always : the ! fl00r.s
Mr.. Drew as the sour old Porteou
gave so delightful performance tina
it inspired the audience to hosannas a
his return to activity. Little could b.
funnier than his greeting to young
Champion Cheney when he is intro
duced to him in the first act. ~ knew
your Iatner, ne SAID. ANA there wa
great sport made of game of bridg
in which there was comic quarrelin
between him and Mrs Carter, witt
Mr.. Lawford a smiling observer o
their discomforts. John Halliday acte
young Luton with capital sincerity an
charm, and his scene with Miss Win
wood when they plan their elopement
one Of the major delights of fine eve
ming at the play.