New-York tribune., 1921-02-21
Books (

II liked your reputation Of the
Barrym Jones' Hopkins Macbeth, "
writes Ruth Hale, Chiefly, perhaps, be-
cause l felt that way about it, too
but there was one recurring strain in
your review to which I should like to
enter some objections.
Il think you did not analyze suf-
fciently the joint responsibility of the
three men, and that throwing the brunt
of the whole calamity on Rob-
ert Edmund Jones was prema-
ture judgment. Mr.. Jones has, it is
true, probably the most definite aim
to be found in the modern theater, and
tbs the easier to isolate him from his
context. But it is also true that Mr..
Joness aim is first, last and always to
build a place where actor and play
wright may make something happen.
He has, [ think, never aimed at beauty
i'll itself for the theater. He has be-
ieVed, and often enough said, that the
scene designers job was to define
spaces around the actor so that the
actors emotions would seem true
neither too large nor too small and thin.
He has used light and color for the
same purpose, and all those who re-
member last years Richard may con-
firm my belief that he nearly always
succeeds.
Having established his intention
through years of work in the theater, /
think he is now entitled to be Judged
on the success or failure of that in
tention and not on the collapse of an
actor and the enfeeblement of a play
wright. Mr.. Jones may or may not
have designed properly for the i'm
mortalized version of 'Macbeth,' but
this cannot be decided until one has
seen the scenes behind the kind of
play and performance he designed them
for. After all, he tries only to lay
the fire and not to set it going. Mr..
Lionel Barrymore as Macbeth was GER
tainly no tinder box. Even Julia
Arthur, in some respects very fine and
restrained, threwfno flame If one ac-
cepts it that the theater is the place
where as many people as possible be-
hind the footlights generate emotion
for the consolation or joy of as many
people in front of them as may be then
Mr.. Barrymore, Miss Arthur and Mr..
Hopkins must be accounted to have
served the theater badly and Mr.. Jones
to have missed fire for some reason or
another. Perhaps Mr.. Jones is as rep
rehensible as you think him in his in
dividual contribution But | do think
there must be considered, when you
say I see a crooked stitch, that Mr..
Jones might rightfully answer you
What Of it? It was put there to burn
in bonfire, and nobody has yet
brought d match"
If the Drama League decides to hold
that benefit for the building fund of
the Bum Sports Club the first number
might we'll be group of Irish ballads
sung by the members of the audience
who refused to let Philip Gibbs be
heard because he was an Englishman.
In the National Geographic Maga-
zine for January" writes A. c. H., "is
q very charming article entitled The
Dream Ship by Ralph Stoch. On page
d5 appears very moving photograph
of natives doing the 'Upa Upa' dance in
the Society Islands at Papeete. In
Frederick O'Brien's book White Shad-
ows in the South Seas (very fascinat-
ing) identically the same photograph
appears on page 16S captioned The
huka: The National Marquesan Dance
And that is very odd,' the Walrus
said, because the islands are good
months sail apart"
Throughout the first one hundred
and twenty-five pages of Alaska Mans
Luck: A Romance of Fact, by Hjalmar