New-York tribune., 1921-01-19
By Haywood 'Broun

Dy I1cyWOOQ DrOun
1t might be said that "Thc Green God
dess" Of William Archer has a peripety,
an obligatory scene and some deft
foreshadowing, but it would be much
better to say that the new melodrama
produced at the Booth last night is a
capital show and let it 60 at that.
After all, the peripety is nothing more
than a scene in which the hero and the
heroine are rescued from a torture
chamber in Rookh, just as heroes and
heroines always are rescued, whether
misfortune has come upon them IN
Lucknow or London. "As punctual as a
relief column" might we'll be a dra-
matte smile, though this time the res
ouers brought the peripety on planes.
The obligatory scene, naturally enough
is the one in which the heroine offers
to sacrifice even her honor to save the
hero from torture.
Some years ago Archer wrote in his
standard textbook on dramatic tech
niquc called "Play Making: "How
comes it that so many peoplc-and
among the number-who could not
write play to save their lives, are
eager to tell others how to do SO ?"
1t must be that some villainous rajah
lured Archer to a secret den and sneer-
ingly told him, in the full expectation
Of his failure, that he must write a
play or die lingering deaf After
seeing "The Green Goddess" there can
be no doubt at all that Archer has
saved his life.
The idea which animated him after
sitting in the theater year after year
as mere juryman has been to take
the play which he has seen one hundred
times and make a hundred and first
version. But he has been ingenious
enough to do it a little better than it
has ever been done before. "The Green
Goddess" is melodrama with satircal
reservations. 1t is a play of the
Englishmen who fall into the hands
of a native potentatc and are threat
ened with death, and of an English
woman. who has also dishonor thrown
in as possibility She must choose
between dying or surrendering to the
will of the rajah. OF course. she
spurns him and the relief column sees
to it that no haxm comes to her be-
cause of her virtue
All this is thoroughly conventional,
Rough in the Archer version much Of
1t is monstrous3y exciting. But in ad-
dition to his melodrama Archer has
worked in, somewhat after the fashion
OF Porter Emerson Browne, a good
deal Of satire on the pretensions of
England and Englishmen by allowing
tne barbarous native ruler to air his
views on occidental civilization. The
Satlre IS not as sustained as in "The
Bad Man" A complete fusion has
not been made and yet we found no
distress in the mixture.
ri
uppermost in Archer's mind, but then
ne cuts loose and writes sheer melo
drama, excellently rapid in pace and
surprising and gripping in some of it's
twists and turns. After all. the pas
sion TOR melodrama, even in the fore
most Ibsenite of our day, is stronger
than any other interest Once the
story grips Archer most of the satire
goes by the board. The distinctly
htefary havor goes, too, and the hero
ana the heroine, with just two minutes
IN which to talk before death comes to
them, use about the same phrases and
express practically the same sentiments
tor Archer as for Owen Davis or Theo-
dore Kremer.
The rajas, however, is villain far
beyond the capacity of any good hack
melodramatist. He is not bent out of
shape even when the plot rises to a
gale, Some of this is because of the
excellent and clear cut portrait, which
must be attributed to a finished, sus-
tanned, and highly animated perfor
nance by George Arliss. 1t is among
MS pest achievements in the theater.
Curlously, enough Archer can poke
1un at Englishmen only while his sa-
tlrlcai mood alone is on him. The bar
Dafous ra]ah in the palace library picks
up volume OF Shaw and asks the Eng
lish major what he thinks of him. "T
never read word of the fellow" an
s"ers the major grutily. But with the
melodrama IN motion Archer sets his
iEngishmen to muddling through into
major with tact when the big test
comes, and he gives him verv gallant
death. eN'-N''V
Our only objection to the plav was
our JUSTIFIED fear that the villain would
be foiled. We coud not understand
Just how the heroine could cling so
faithfully to man who had never read
a llne" OF Shaw. 1t would have been
hignly agreeable to us if she had ac-
cepted all the rajah's proposals. He
was much the finest person in the
plece. Perhaps he had to be foiled, but
Archer was kind enough to take the
edge off the disappointment by allow
ing his villain the last sneer.
Next to Arlss the outstanding per-
formance is that of Ivan Simpson. who
is extraordinarily fine in Uriah
Heepish sort of role. Olive Wyndham
Cyril keightley and Herbert Waring
are all good. Winthrop Ames has pro-
duced the piece magniticently. Belasco
has seldom been more happy in estab
lishing atmosphere. "The Green God
dess" deserves your attention. At the
moment of writing it seems the best
melodrama in town.